We looked into a Chinese pangolin smuggling syndicate. Here’s what we found.

Our colleagues Karen Zhang and Xu Jiaming published their investigation into a Chinese wildlife smuggling syndicate.

According to court documents in mainland China, the group smuggled at least three shipments of more than four tonnes of pangolin scales worth 3.8 million yuan (US$547,500) from Nigeria to China, with the cargo going through South Korea and Hong Kong.

Based on interviews, including with smugglers, and court records, Karen and Jiaming pieced together a picture of how the syndicate sourced its illicit supplies in Africa and had them shipped over by sea, and used couriers to transport pangolin scales by air.

Read their investigative report in The South China Morning Post.