Our crackdown on illegal wildlife smuggling has led to Chinese national Yinan Zhao being sentenced to 18 months in prison. Ms Zhao was trying to illegally export 22 native reptiles.
Under Australia's national environment law, it is an offence to export regulated native species without a permit.
Offenders can face:
- up to 10 years jail
- a fine of $330,000
- or both jail and a fine.
Our Environmental Crime Team arrested Ms Zhao following a search in Calamvale, Queensland.
Ms Zhao sent 13 parcels overseas from Queensland and New South Wales in 2023. She also had 9 native reptiles, including a rare granite belt thick tailed gecko.
Other finds included unused parcel boxes and paraphernalia consistent with illegal animal exports.
The Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation has taken the reptiles into care.
In October 2023, our Environmental Crime Team commenced Operation Calypso. This operation is an investigation into the exportation of Australia's native wildlife to Hong Kong.
Thank you, Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Australia Post, the Australian Border Force, and the QLD Police Force.
Criminal networks target students through job advertisements. These require no experience and offer lucrative payments and flexible work arrangements. The task: to illegally post packages containing native reptiles.
