Cameroun - Customs arrests Ghanaian national with illegal parrots

A notorious parrot trafficker of Ghanaian nationality has been arrested in Kienke, in the Ocean Division by customs with aconsignment of illegal African grey parrots. The man who was arrested during an operation carried out by the customs mobile brigade in collaboration with the gendarmerieis a repeat offender and has been arrested several times for unlawful possession of African grey parrots. Thearresting team found three men with 18 African grey parrots but two of the suspects escaped when they saw the law enforcement officers.

According to Customs Lieutenant. Mbarga Beyala,the chef of customs mobile brigade in Kribi,the arrest was planned and executed thanks to vital information on the capture and possession of African grey parrots in the Lukoundje Subdivision, by a group of poachers and traffickers. He then proceeded to assembling a team comprising gendarmes and customs officers who investigated and carried out the operation.

This is the third time the 44-year-old man is arrested for parrot trafficking. In 2015 the suspect was first arrested in Kribi with a consignment of African grey parrots, charged but released. He was again arrested with an accomplicein Yaoundein March 2017 with over 200 parrots, charged and taken to theMfou Court of First Instance but wasreleased while the case was still in process.The parrots had been caged and were just about to be taken to the Nsimalen airport when wildlife officials arrived at the hideout and stopped the two. Shortly before the arrest, he had connived with some traffickers in Ghana and Cameroon to export over 100 parrots through the Nsimalen airport via Abidjan in an Accra borne flight. A follow up investigation linking the three countries was carried out and he illegal cargo was seized and one person arrested at the Kotoka International Airport in Ghana.

He is presently behind bars, although reports by a source who is connected to the case say several attempts have been made by some of his relations to get him released. An international organization called LAGA is assisting both the customs department and wildlife officials in the prosecution process. The assistance provided by LAGA falls within the framework of a memorandum of understanding recently signed by the customs department and the organisation. And in accordance with the procedure involved in the prosecution of such offences, the case file has been transferred to the Ocean Divisional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife.

The trafficker is suspected to be connected to a grouptrafficking parrots from Cameroon to Europe, Asia and several other countriesfor several years now, decimating large numbers of the country’s highly valued African grey parrots. Cameroon is an important range country for this species that is considered to be one of the most intelligent birds in the world.

During the last Conference of Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) held in South Africa in 2016, the African grey parrot was given the highest levels of protection by the convention meaning it is totally forbidden to trade in the species. In this light, the government of Cameroon reclassified the parrots to totally protected species and it is therefore forbidden to capture or obtain African grey parrots. According to CITES, the parrot has experienced marked population declines throughout its range stages and an estimate done some 15 years ago show that during the period 1994 to 2003 alone over 359 000 individuals were caught in the wild.

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