National Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit (NWCU) is a British national police unit that gathers intelligence on wildlife crime and provides analytical and investigative support to law enforcement agencies.
The illegal trade in wildlife over the Internet remains an area which is not fully understood and which raises a number of concerns. The Unit will use its resources in a targeted fashion focusing in particular with those issues on the Internet that are of concern on a national and international level.
The Internet provides increased criminal opportunities, taking advantage of the unregulated and impersonal nature of transactions. The trade, legal and illegal, in wildlife products is increasing and the Internet is coming to play a central role in the activities of illegal traders. The pilot unit - National Wildlife Crime Intelligence Unit (when based at National Criminal Intelligence Service NCIS) developed a good working relationship with eBay, and a number of intelligence packages were developed and passed to enforcement agencies for action. These resulted in a number of arrests, cautions, formal warnings and three court cases, some of the examples of the court results are shown below:
Sperm whale tooth - formal warning
· Egg collection - arrested and cautioned
· Egg box containing eggs - arrested and cautioned
· Blown egg - formal warning
· Stuffed snowy owl - suspect pleaded guilty and was conditionally discharged for 6 months
· Various taxidermy seized including leopard and coyote skins, stuffed black bear and birds of prey, plus birds' eggs and a computer. The suspect pleaded guilty and received 8 months custody, suspended for 2 years, and a community order of 200 hours unpaid work
· Frogspawn - cautionary letter
· Egg collection - arrested and cautioned
· Blown egg - arrested and cautioned
· Red squirrel taxidermy - arrested and cautioned
· Whale tooth taxidermy - cautioned
· Taxidermy sparrowhawk - arrested and cautioned
· Numerous taxidermy specimens - taken to court and received a conditional discharge for 2 years and ordered to pay £50 costs
0 comments:
Post a Comment