55.4kg of rhino horns seized in South Africa; two Nigerians arrested in joint operation with S’pore

SINGAPORE – Two Nigerian men were arrested, and a total of 55.4kg of rhinoceros horns and 26.2kg of big cat parts were seized in Johannesburg following a joint operation between the National Parks Board (NParks) and South African authorities.

On Nov 11, NParks was alerted to a suspicious shipment originating from South Africa that was in transit at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

The shipment bore similarities – including the same country of origin and final destination – to a shipment that was seized on Nov 8.

That earlier shipment contained a total of 35.7kg of rhinoceros horns – the largest haul of its kind in Singapore – and around 150kg of other animal parts, including bones, teeth and claws.

But instead of seizing the Nov 11 shipment, NParks contacted and worked with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) of the South African Police Service to facilitate a controlled return of the shipment to South Africa to enable further investigation.

“(The shipment) was not opened at all because there were similarities (with the Nov 8 shipment), so we suspected that there could be contraband inside... We then coordinated with the logistics company to send it back,” said Dr Anna Wong, senior director of wildlife trade at NParks.

Following the return, a subsequent operation by the South African authorities on Dec 1 led them to a storage facility in Johannesburg, where four boxes of 17 rhinoceros horns weighing 55.4kg, as well as 26.2kg of lion and tiger bones, skulls and claws, were uncovered.

Two Nigerian men were arrested. They were subsequently charged in South Africa for contravening Section 57(1) of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Act 10 of 2004), which prohibits restricted activities involving listed threatened or protected species.

“The recovered horns and animal parts are believed to be part of a broader transnational trafficking network responsible for smuggling wildlife products from South Africa to other foreign markets,” NParks said on Dec 30.

For the Nov 11 shipment, the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force is also looking into possible money laundering offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992, NParks said.

Rhinoceroses are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and international trade in rhinoceros horns is prohibited globally.

The decision by NParks to initiate and facilitate a controlled return of the shipment to South Africa allowed investigations to be conducted in the source country, with the potential to identify and dismantle the broader criminal network beyond intercepting a single shipment in another country, NParks said. The controlled return, which went smoothly, also required extensive multinational cooperation between NParks and the DPCI to ensure the shipment could be tracked and monitored throughout its journey.

“This approach demonstrates the importance of international cooperation in combating transnational wildlife crime, where targeting the criminal networks at their source can yield more significant long-term results than isolated seizures,” NParks said.

For the shipment seized on Nov 8, NParks’ Centre for Wildlife Forensics carried out further analysis and found that the other animal parts seized along with the rhinoceros horns were from lions and tigers.

NParks is also working with the University of Pretoria in South Africa to determine the provenance of the rhinoceroses from which the horns were taken.

When asked if the discoveries of the shipments were a concern given Singapore’s role as a transit point, Dr Wong said Singapore has “very strong enforcement measures to combat illegal wildlife trade” and that a multi-pronged approach had led to such detection and seizures.

NParks said multi-agency investigations are ongoing and that it has shared intelligence with international partners, including Interpol, the World Customs Organization and the authorities from Laos – the stated destination of the shipment – to facilitate investigations.

On Dec 11, Interpol said its operation in multiple countries, including Singapore, in September and October targeting the illegal wildlife trade seized almost 30,000 live animals – the highest number of animals ever seized in Operation Thunder, in its ninth run in 2025.

As a signatory to the CITES, Singapore is committed to stamping out illegal wildlife trade.

At the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to CITES held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Nov 24 to Dec 5, Dr Wong was appointed the chair of Committee II – which oversees a range of strategic and procedural matters of CITES, and makes recommendations concerning the implementation, interpretation and operation of the convention.

“This is the first time a Singaporean has been appointed to chair one of the two main committees at a COP,” NParks said.

As chair of Committee II, Dr Wong presided over discussions on more than 100 agenda items throughout the conference, guiding debates and ensuring consensus among nearly 3,500 participants from over 160 countries and adopting more than 350 decisions.

These included financial matters, strategic matters such as livelihoods, species conservation and trade – particularly elephants – and mitigating the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, among others.

Singapore was also elected as one of three members representing Asia on a senior committee that guides CITES’ work by providing strategic direction and oversight of the implementation of the convention, NParks said.