CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Nearly 30,000 live animals were rescued in a monthlong global operation against wildlife trafficking that resulted in a record number of seizures, the international police body Interpol said on Thursday.
Operation Thunder 2025 from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 involved law enforcement agencies and wildlife and forestry authorities from 134 countries and resulted in more than 4,600 separate seizures that included tens of thousands of protected animals and plants and tens of thousands of cubic meters of illegally logged timber.
The animals rescued included 6,160 birds, 2,040 tortoises and turtles, 1,150 reptiles, 208 primates and 10 big cats, including endangered tigers, Interpol said.
Wildlife trafficking for animals' body parts or for their sale as exotic pets is the most prominent danger to many endangered species and has become a major transnational organized crime.
Interpol said wildlife crime was worth at least $20 billion a year, and likely more because of the difficulties in tracking it. The global operation identified more than 1,000 suspects involved in the illegal wildlife trade, Interpol said.
“Operation Thunder once again exposes the sophistication and scale of the criminal networks driving the illegal wildlife and forestry trade,” Interpol Secretary-General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.
Animal body parts were also seized, including 1,900 pieces of elephant ivory, more than 200 tons of marine species and seven tons of pangolin scales and meat. Pangolins are small, nocturnal mammals covered in scales and sometimes called scaly anteaters. They are often ranked as the most trafficked animal in the world because of their scales, which are used in traditional medicines, and their meat, which is considered a delicacy.
Interpol said the monthlong anti-trafficking operation, which happens every year, led to seizures across the world, including in Europe and North America. More than 40 shipments of insects and 80 shipments of butterflies originating in Germany, Slovakia and the U.K. were intercepted at a U.S. mail center, Interpol said.
Another shipment intercepted at a North American mail center contained more than 1,300 primate body parts, including bones and skulls.
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