China's largest wildlife trafficking case cracked

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http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/25/content_284639.htm

 

China's largest wildlife trafficking case cracked

( 2003-11-25 16:58) (Xinhua)

 

Chinese police have cracked the country's largest wildlife trafficking case

and the Xi'an Municipal People's Procuratorate in northwestern Shaanxi

province will soon begin prosecution of the suspects, said a source with the

Shaanxi provincial forestry public security department Tuesday.

 

Jia Ruisheng, former general manager of a health care technology development

company in Beijing, allegedly purchased 2,130 macaques in a year from

November 2001 to November 2002, according to the Shaanxi Provincial Forest

Police Station, which was commissioned with the case by the State Forestry

Administration.

 

Most of the macaques were provided by traffickers from Lixin county in east

China's Anhui province, including Su Hongbiao, Wang Yujian, Ma Huaishan and

Jia Wenfei.

 

The macaque, a kind of monkey with cheek pouches and usually a short tail,

is endangered in Asia and Africa and enjoys state-level protection in China

in accordance with the country's wildlife protection law.

 

The police first intercepted two macaques being smuggled by Tian Lichao, a

peasant farmer from Lixian county, in a train from southwest China's Sichuan

province to Anhui province on Nov. 28, 2002 and later tracked down the whole

ring behind him.

 

This was the largest wildlife trafficking ever uncovered in China and

ensured a better living environment for the rare monkeys, the police said.