Smuggling of 40 primates stopped

A shipment of 40 live primates locked in 3 crates, each divided to 10 tiny cells, left DRC and reached Togo on the way to its final destination, Thailand. After consultation with EAGLE, the CAAT at the Lome airport stopped the shipment.Together with the EAGLE-Togo team the authorities determined the illegalities of the absence of a CITES permit for 7 species and the absence of a re-export permit. The illegal shipment was seized and returned to DRC on Tuesday.The primates were transported in appalling conditions in tiny cells with hardly any space to move. we found one monkey sitting on the dead body of another that was covered in fesses.Corruption and complicity are commonplace in the live animals trade and especially in DRC. This is a test case for DRC to show it changed by finally prosecuting the traffickers behind this shipment.Permits of CITES (UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) that are supposed to regulate the international trade turn through corruption to facilitators of trafficking.The excellent work of the Togo authorities in stopping the shipment remains an exceptional example in an otherwise rampant trafficking in primates enabled by complicity.