The Macau Customs Service said in a statement Thursday that its officers had seized about 100 kilograms of pangolin scales at the Taipa Ferry Terminal in Pac On.
The statement said that in the evening of August 30, custom officers stationed there stopped a female Hong Kong resident in her fifties – who was about to enter Macau carrying four suitcases. During a search of her luggage, the customs found about 100 kilogrammes of suspected pangolin scales – which were wrapped in over 90 tin foil packets.
According to the statement, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau officers later confirmed that the pangolin scales are a listed prohibited item in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The visitor claimed that she was bringing the pangolin scales into Macau for “someone”, but she couldn’t show any valid declaration.
The statement did not reveal who the “someone” was.
The Customs will charge the visitor according to the External Trade Law and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the statement said. The suspect could receive a fine for bringing parts of an endangered species into the city.
