PUBLISHED ONDecember 30, 2025 4:58 AMBYEsther LamMore than 80kg of rhinoceros horns, lion and tiger bones were seized in Johannesburg on Dec 1, following a joint operation between the National Parks Board (NParks) and South African authorities.
In a statement on Tuesday (Dec 30), NParks said it was alerted to a suspicious shipment transiting through Singapore Changi Airport from South Africa on Nov 11.
The cargo "bore similarities" to a previous shipment seized by NParks on Nov 8 and found to contain 35.7kg of rhino horns worth $1.13 million and other animal parts, it added.
Following an assessment, NParks did not seize the shipment but instead coordinated with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and initiated a controlled return of the shipment to South Africa to enable further investigation.
On Dec 1, the DPCI's Serious Organised Crime Investigation’s Wildlife Trafficking Unit launched an operation which traced the shipment to a storage facility in Johannesburg. There, four boxes containing 17 rhinoceros horns weighing 55.4kg, along with 26.2kg of lion and tiger bones, including skulls and claws, were seized.
Two Nigerian men were also arrested.
They will be charged in South Africa under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Act 10 of 2004), which prohibits restricted activities involving listed threatened or protected species.
The recovered horns and animal parts are believed to be linked to a wider transnational wildlife trafficking network smuggling products from South Africa to foreign markets.
"The decision by NParks to initiate and facilitate a controlled return of the shipment to South Africa enabled the DPCI to conduct investigations at the source country with the potential to identify and dismantle the broader criminal network beyond intercepting a single shipment in another country," NParks stated.
It added that the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) is also looking into possible money laundering offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992.
For the Nov 8 case, NParks and the Airport Police Division of SPF were alerted by air cargo handler Sats to a suspicious shipment of four pieces of cargo headed for Vientiane.
A record 35.7kg of rhinoceros horns, along with about 150kg of other animal parts, were seized during a routine transit inspection at Changi Airport, as previously reported by AsiaOne.
NParks' Centre for Wildlife Forensics (CWF) have since determined the other animal parts seized to be from lions and tigers.
The origins of the rhino horns are still being investigated by CWF and the University of Pretoria, South Africa, said NParks on Dec 30.
It is yet to be determined whether the two seizures in Singapore and South Africa are related and investigations are ongoing, NParks added.
Singapore holds a zero-tolerance stance on the illegal trade of endangered wildlife species, their parts and derivatives, said NParks.
Earlier this month, Interpol also announced that a record 30,000 live animals were seized across 134 countries, including Singapore, as part of Operation Thunder — a global operation by Interpol and the World Customs Organisation targeting illegal trafficking of floral and fauna.
In support of the operation, NParks carried out a series of coordinated raids on Oct 9 across Singapore.
A total of six premises were raided and 16 wildlife specimens seized.
Among the confiscated animals — which are currently being house and cared for at NParks' Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation — were endangered species such as yellow-headed
day geckos and a leopard tortoise.
[[nid:725498]]
