Illegal wildlife trade—a multi-billion dollar industry—is not an isolated problem. New research confirms that the same criminal groups trafficking endangered species are deeply involved in drugs, arms, human trafficking, and other illicit markets. This means traditional efforts to combat poaching or smuggling in isolation are no longer effective.
The Breadth of Criminal Overlap
Investigators raided a South African farm in 2021 and discovered 800 pounds of lion bones being boiled into “lion cake” for traditional medicine. Hidden among the bones were 13 gallons of opium, mixed directly into the product. This case illustrates a growing trend: criminal networks are increasingly commodity agnostic. They’ll trade in whatever brings the biggest profit, shifting between wildlife, narcotics, weapons, or people as opportunities arise.
This isn’t just speculation. Study lead author Michelle Anagnostou interviewed 112 sources—wildlife officers, police, customs agents, and organized crime experts—in South Africa, Hong Kong, and Canada. The findings show criminals adapting to exploit multiple markets:
- Some cartels added wildlife goods (rhino horn, succulents) to existing drug or arms operations.
- Others expanded from wildlife into new areas like human trafficking or stolen goods.
- Illegal wildlife was even used for barter: abalone for methamphetamine, sturgeon for heroin.
- Criminals used illegal pets (lions, tigers) to guard drug stashes.
- Forced labor was exploited to extract illegal goods like rhino horn and ginseng.
Why This Matters: The Need For Unified Action
For years, experts suspected these connections. The new study provides concrete evidence that wildlife crime is inseparable from broader organized crime. The current approach of treating each form of trafficking separately fails to address the core issue: a single network operating across multiple illegal commodities.
This requires a fundamental shift in strategy:
- Intelligence sharing between units and countries.
- Joint task forces targeting entire criminal networks, not just specific products.
- International cooperation that goes beyond commodity-specific agreements.
- Coordinated legal strategies to disrupt the entire operation, not just one part.
Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, notes that persuading authorities to recognize wildlife trade as organized crime took years of evidence. The next step is acknowledging the convergence with other illicit activities, which this study helps to reinforce.
The old approach is broken. Criminals don’t care what they’re selling—they care about profit. Law enforcement must treat them as interconnected, not segmented, threats.
Ignoring this reality allows criminal networks to thrive, shifting operations seamlessly to exploit vulnerabilities in disjointed enforcement systems.
