INTERPOL through their Environmental Security (ENS) has launched an Operation Golden Strike II which was taken place on July 2022 by focusing on the issues of illegal wildlife trade between
Africa and Asia region. With collaboration of 28 countries, 1 region namely Hong Kong China, Africa with total of 14 countries, Asia with involvement of 12 countries and 1 region, 2 transit countries, 9 ASEANAPOL Member Countries with the exception of Brunei, resulted of 185 investigations and over 300 criminals had been arrested after conducted an operational briefing meeting on June of the same year.
In determine the outcomes of the above operation, the Post-Operational Meeting of Operation Golden Strike II was convened virtually on 20 December 2022 by INTERPOL to recap the efforts of participated countries and review the crime trends in the region involved besides observing the common threats and challenges that may face in the future in order to establish the significant cooperation and collaboration among countries in Asia and Africa to countering the wildlife crimes.
The meeting then commenced with opening remarks by Mr. David MIGWI from INTERPOL followed by Ms. WU Ying from NCB Beijing and Pol. Brig. Gen. Zaw Lin Tun, the Executive Director of ASEANAPOL Secretariat. In brief, INTERPOL updated that the illegal wildlife trafficking crime mode showing the trend of increment in terms of quantities of live animals’ seizures meanwhile the number of wildlife seizures is decreased and most of the cases were detected in the airport. By referring the case study occurred in Tanzania, 116 tortoises were detected in Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok whilst Singapore presenter highlighted that the conservation of song birds in Asia currently being implemented by Singapore authority during the recent 19th Conference of the Parties, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which was successfully held in Panama.
The meeting concluded with the sharing of future programs with another series of same operation will be further initiate in the second quarter of year 2023. It was obviously witnessed that the participation of ASEANAPOL Member Countries manifested the elements of international cooperation which includes of joint investigation and real-time information sharing is vital whilst strengthening the aspect of mutual legal assistance and crime trend assessment are paramount to secure the successful of sharing the intelligence information and operation.