Netherlands an important transit country for trafficking dodgy traditional medicines

The Netherlands is an important transshipment hub in the trafficking of traditional Chinese medicines made using parts of endangered animals, the Telegraaf reports based on undercover research from four Dutch foundations.

SPOTS, IUCN NL, Bears in Mind, and ELI started their investigation in 2021 and discovered that the Netherlands is an important link in the global trade of TCM that contains ingredients from endangered plants and animal species. A Rotterdam-based criminal network allegedly imports animal body parts and plants from China with the aim of making and trading TCM. That includes rhino horns, tiger bones, and pangolin scales.

According to the foundations, the Rotterdam gang works with a wholesaler in Bozhou, China, who collects the endangered animal products and sells them to a stable customer base of 800 people and stores throughout Europe. The Netherlands functions as a transit country. Most customers are located in the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Sweden.

The foundations gave their results to the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) last year. The NVWA launched its own investigation and arrested a trader from Zuid-Holland this month.

“The illegal products are mainly exported to the EU by train via the New Silk Road, a trade connection from the Far East to Europe. But also by air and sea,” Antoinette Sprenger of IUCN NL told the Telegraaf. “They are often transported together with legal products, making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to identify them.” In many cases, the illegal goods entered the Netherlands in vans and cars, after which they could be transported through the rest of the EU because there is free movement and checks are rare.

Illegal trade in wild animals and plants is a very lucrative and growing form of organized crime, the four foundations said. A significant share of this illegal trade in often endangered species is driven by TCM, they said.

According to the World Health Organization, about 60 percent of the world's population uses traditional medicines. Chinese, Indian, and African traditional medicines are the most common.