In 2015, we had a powerful new idea. Today we know it works.
The Wildlife Justice Commission leads the global fight against wildlife trafficking by combining two powerful strategies: supporting law enforcement and building the political will needed to treat wildlife trafficking as serious, transnational organised crime.
We target the powerful criminal networks profiting from trafficking wildlife, timber, and fish—networks that are driving species toward extinction—and we pursue those behind them: the most impactful offenders, the elusive kingpins who often operate with impunity.
By gathering solid evidence and working with law enforcement, we help bring those responsible to justice. Our goal is simple… to stop species from going extinct due to organised crime.
What we have achieved in just one decade speaks volumes:
Driving accountability through intelligence-led investigations
Not only do we use intelligence analysis to identify and target high-level criminals trafficking in vulnerable species, we inform and discern key trends and best practices to allow for better law enforcement and policy making. Since 2015, we have published 21 public reports.
From global impact to local transformation
Our mission is clear: To disrupt and help dismantle the transnational criminal networks trafficking wildlife, timber, and fish by collecting evidence and turning it into accountability—so that organised crime is not driving species to extinction.
That means closing the gap between crime and consequence, disrupting the networks, identifying the perpetrators, and ensuring they are held responsible in court. This is how we protect endangered species and create lasting deterrence.
This mission has driven impactful results across the globe:
In Thailand, we helped arrest a kingpin accused of trafficking endangered lemurs and tortoises for the exotic pet trade. He is now awaiting trial in Thailand and was already convicted in absentia in Madagascar.
In Mozambique, we helped bring down Simon Valoy, a notorious poaching coordinator responsible for the slaughter of over 1,000 rhinos in Kruger National Park. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In Malaysia, our undercover operatives worked with US Fish and Wildlife Service to collect evidence against Teo Boon Ching, the logistics mastermind responsible for transporting huge quantities of ivory and rhino horn from Africa to Asia. He was arrested in Thailand, extradited to the U.S., and convicted in the Southern District of New York.
…and numerous other cases that have not yet been made public.
A breakthrough case: Disrupting pangolin trafficking in Nigeria
Among all our successes, nowhere has our mission come to life more powerfully than in Nigeria — a transformative case that showcases the full potential of our model.
Between 2016 and 2019, Nigeria emerged as the world’s largest hub for pangolin trafficking, linked to over half of global seizures, and a major transit point for elephant ivory bound for Asia. Thousands of pangolins and elephants were killed and smuggled, fuelling vast criminal networks.
In Nigeria, where the trafficking scale was enormous and the criminal players sophisticated—traditional enforcement wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t enough to seize the product. We had to disrupt the criminal infrastructure itself. In partnership with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), we implemented an intelligence-led enforcement model—agile, targeted, and focused on disruption. Together with NCS, we infiltrated networks, exposed key traffickers, and provided actionable intelligence to law enforcement. We tracked the wildlife products from the source. We mapped the criminal infrastructure across the supply chain. And we struck where it would do the most damage—at the top. We took down the kingpins orchestrating the trafficking operations including major Vietnamese and Chinese criminals and their networks.
The success of our work in Nigeria would not have been possible without the bold and strategic leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Their commitment to combating wildlife crime has set a new benchmark for enforcement in high-risk transit countries.
In 2022, our partnership led to the arrest of three Vietnamese nationals—a kingpin and his two associates – and central figures in pangolin and ivory trafficking—whose 2023 convictions sent a strong message that wildlife crime will not be tolerated. More recently, in 2025, Nigerian authorities arrested a Chinese kingpin linked to the largest pangolin scale seizure globally since 2020, following a months-long, intelligence-led investigation supported by WJC.
Our results between July 2021 and December 2025
- Seized 25.3 tonnes of pangolin scales
(equivalent to 135,000 pangolins) - Intercepted multiple tonnes of ivory
(from over 250 elephants) - 20 ground operations
- 42 arrests
- 15 convictions
- 91% of all pangolin seizures in Nigeria involved WJC intelligence
Structural disruption, not just seizures
The impact is deeper than the numbers:
- Trafficking routes from Nigeria have collapsed
- No seizures at Asian seaports originating from Nigeria in over three years
- Market prices have dropped and stabilised
Our intelligence has been pivotal. Between July 2021 and December 2025, 91% of pangolin seizures in Nigeria involved WJC support, leading to the collapse of trafficking routes, fractured syndicates, and a complete halt of major shipments from Nigerian ports for more than three years.
The Nigeria case proves what’s possible when enforcement is focused on those who do the greatest damage. And we’re scaling this model globally—disrupting trafficking networks threatening rhino horns, ivory, marine species, and exotic pets across Africa, Asia, and beyond. These findings are also informing and shaping global policy discussions, as we advocate for stronger responses to wildlife crime at the highest international levels.
This is how species are saved: case by case, network by network, country by country.
The Nigeria story shows what’s possible—when intelligence meets courage, and action follows evidence. But we can’t stop here.
With your support, we can take this model further: disrupting wildlife crime in more countries, protecting more species, and holding more traffickers to account.
Join us. Help scale the impact. Help stop extinction in its tracks.
