Closing net on illegal wildlife traffickers

For decades the plundering of protected species went unchallenged, but new efforts are being made to halt the trade

- Luke Taylor

The taskforce sets off from a military base on Colombia's main river at 2am. The operation has all the hallmarks of a drug raid - it is led by armed police and naval officers and is the culmination of two years of intelligence-gathering in the capital, Bogotá.

Today's contraband, however, is not white powder but the spectacled caiman - the smaller, bulbous-eyed relative of the alligator that is endemic to the wetlands and rivers of South America. Hoping to catch the suspects while they are still at home, the police navigate a boat down the Magdalena River in total darkness, except for the green hues of fireflies.

"We've busted the people who buy from them in smaller quantities: 10, 20, or 50," said Cristian Mesa, yawning from the exhaustion of a second consecutive night raid. "But we've never got the main collection point up river. There are hundreds [of caiman] where we are going."

From outside, the nondescript house targeted by Mesa's team in the small, isolated town of Sucre looks like any other. But, after showing their warrants and forcing their way through the front door, the team find a damp pit at the back used as an improvised caiman pool.

Inside the pit are more than 200 of the reptiles poached from local rivers. They huddle in the corners in a heap, making high-pitch squeaks. The largest caiman is a metre long but most are babies. "The younger the better, as the leather will be more supple and thus more valuable when they skin and export them," said one of the officers, inspecting the huddle.