AIRPORT SECURITY STAFF HAILED AS PANGOLIN SCALES INTERCEPTED AT JOMO KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
(Posted 10th November 2016)
100 kilograms of Pangolin scales worth at least 60 million Kenya Shillings were intercepted yesterday in Nairobi. The consignment was in transit from reportedly Yaounde / Cameroon before being confiscated before as it was about to be loaded on to a connecting flight.
Destination was given as Bangkok, one of the Far East’s main trafficking points besides Hong Kong, Vietnamese and Malaysian ports.
Earlier in the year did similar surveillance and monitoring efforts lead to the confiscation of half a ton of Pangolin scales, the greed for which has put the rare animal to the point of near extinction.
Airport customs officers, security operatives and KWS staff with sniffer dogs regularly intercept illicit cargos of blood ivory, rhino horn and other prohibited wildlife products making JKIA an airport to avoid when attempting to smuggle contraband, though Addis Ababa too has raised the bar and has reported successes in the recent past with intercepted air cargo.
