By Navin Singh Khadka, BBC World Service Environment Correspondent
![Inside the South African Police Service children's kitchen set box were succulents.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e1c6/live/5ca10850-3957-11ef-bdc5-41d7421c2adf.jpg.webp)
South African officials at Cape Town International Airport became suspicious when they discovered cardboard boxes labelled as toys being sent to China.
China is famous for exporting toys to the world rather than importing them.
When the box was opened for random inspection, instead of the promised baby cooking set or board game, a bundle of endangered succulents was found carefully wrapped in toilet paper.
The shipment contained 23,000 plants known as conophytum, investigators from the South African Police Service's Endangered Species Management Unit told the BBC in April 2022.
Authorities were on high alert after a courier company nearly fell for the same scheme a few months ago.
About a year later, authorities at the same airport discovered a cardboard box labeled “Mushrooms” that was being exported to China.
When I opened the lid, I found a bag usually used to store onions containing succulent plants, weighing about 12,000 plants.
![Getty Images Scrubland, Northern Cape, South Africa](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/3e7d/live/67ec23e0-395f-11ef-bbe0-29f79e992ddd.jpg.webp)
“It never stops,” said one police detective. “Once they figure out one way to do it, they come up with another idea for smuggling.”
According to Traffic, an international organization that investigates wildlife crime, authorities have seized more than 1 million plants from 650 species of illegally harvested succulents since 2019, which were then exported to overseas markets via Southern Africa.
In South Africa, law enforcement agencies seize approximately 3,000 illegally traded succulents every week.
As demand grows as an ornamental plant, new markets are emerging, particularly across East Asia, with many African countries sourcing the plant from the wild, says the South African National Biodiversity Institute.
This has threatened biodiversity in places like the Karoo, a vast dryland region in South Africa and Namibia, which the World Wildlife Fund says is home to more than 6,000 species of succulents, 40 percent of which are found nowhere else.
One of the most commonly smuggled succulent species is Conophytum, several subspecies of which are subject to trade restrictions.
![Succulents found in onion bags at Cape Town Airport, South Africa](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/320b/live/6b879d50-3963-11ef-a044-9d4367d5b599.jpg.webp)
Because, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, they are either critically endangered or critically endangered.
Wildlife trade experts say the postal and courier services have become easy ways to smuggle small plants, such as succulents.
According to a recent report by the World Customs Organization (WCO), the most common method of smuggling plants and animals was to package them in small parcels and mail them, which accounted for 43% of all seizures in 2022, up 17% from the previous year.
“There are a variety of methods criminals use to hide illicit goods in the mail. A common method is the use of children’s toys,” says Dawn Wilkes, postal security program manager for the Universal Postal Union, a global association of postal services.
She told the BBC such items usually come from Africa or Asia.
![Getty Images Frithia pulchra, tropical succulent](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b783/live/2cfb2a40-3966-11ef-a044-9d4367d5b599.jpg.webp)
And customs officials know how cunning human traffickers can be.
Last March, officials in Hai Phong, a city in northeastern Vietnam, discovered an interesting shipment from Nigeria.
The container was filled with what looked like black horns. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were ivory tusks painted black.
Experts who investigate the illegal wildlife trade say it is unusual for tusks to be disguised with paint, although Vietnamese authorities have in the past seized ivory hidden in shipments of cow horn.
The items seized in Hai Phong included about 550 pieces of elephant ivory, weighing nearly 1,600 kg (252 st).
This resulted in the arrest of two people in Nigeria in connection with the shipment.According to the Wildlife Justice Commission, the commission worked with the country's customs authorities on the case.
The illegal ivory trade primarily affects Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is one of the main causes of the decline of African elephants. Over the past 30 years, African elephant populations have declined by about 90%.
The African forest elephant is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The endangered sharks off the coast of Africa are also struggling to conserve, especially since their fins are a key ingredient in shark fin soup, a popular delicacy in many parts of the world.
There are over 500 recorded shark species, many of which are permitted to be traded. However, around 60 species of sharks are endangered and therefore trade is restricted.
![Getty Images Blacktip reef shark captured in the Indian Ocean, South Africa](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/fc53/live/11d449a0-3965-11ef-a044-9d4367d5b599.jpg.webp)
Wildlife trade investigators say this is a loophole that illegal traders are exploiting.
In recent years, there have been several instances in which customs authorities in South Africa have encountered shipments containing a mixture of legal and illegal shark fins.
“Criminals will claim that an endangered species is actually being traded legally,” Traffic expert Sarah Vincent told the BBC.
“That's why it's important for law enforcement to know how to distinguish what's what.”
She said the work was carried out in South Africa with the help of Traffic's 3D digital technology.
Given the increasing sophistication of wildlife trafficking operations and the variety of cover-up techniques used, it is important for law enforcement to share intelligence with local and international counterparts.
Elizabeth John, a wildlife investigator for Southeast Asia, believes the only way to fight smugglers is to unite.
As information sharing has expanded over the years, so have the seizures.
According to the WCO report, confiscations in 2022 will increase by 10% compared to 2020 and a whopping 56% compared to 2021.
But the increase in seizures also represents a worrying trend.
“These statistics suggest that illegal wildlife and timber trade remains widespread, and that smugglers are using an evolving range of techniques to evade applicable laws prohibiting this illegal crime,” the WCO said.
Wildlife trade experts say the challenge is to provide customs and border authorities with adequate resources, equipment and training to stay ahead of smugglers' ever-evolving strategies.
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