Can forensic science techniques dismantle a $23 billion illegal wildlife trading network?

In a significant stride towards combating the illegal wildlife trade, wildlife experts are training law enforcement officers across Africa and Asia to use advanced forensic techniques that will bolster their arrests with solid evidence.

One such innovation is the SupraNano Magnetic Powder, a fingerprint enhancer developed by Moseley. This groundbreaking technology can retrieve finger-ridge details from prints deposited up to 28 days earlier, providing a valuable tool in the investigation of poaching cases.

In 2017, the Kenya Wildlife Service employed these kits to arrest 15 individuals, including five police officers, after identifying suspects by their fingerprints on confiscated ivory. The kits have also been tested successfully on various coveted items by traffickers, including rhino horns, tiger claws, hippopotamus teeth, sperm whale teeth, and even eggshells.

The Zoological Society of London is promoting a gel lifter that can extract prints from pangolin scales, although its distribution for wildlife forensic purposes is yet to be determined. Meanwhile, Tracy Alexander and her partners at King's College London are developing a fingerprint-gathering technology called vacuum metal deposition, which can bring out prints on non-smooth surfaces like elephant tusks.

However, the adoption of these new methods is not without challenges. Some police officers seem uninterested, with some fingerprints being stored in drawers instead of being properly documented. Moreover, many African police departments lack Wi-Fi and mobile fingerprint scanners, making it difficult to send images from cell phones to data centers.

The illegal wildlife trade remains a lucrative business, worth as much as $23 billion a year, according to the United Nations. Notable cases include the arrest of Karnasuta, a construction-empire tycoon and one of Thailand's most prominent and powerful men, who was sentenced to three years and two months and a two-million-baht ($59,700) fine in 2019.

In India, the Forest Department and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau implemented a cutting-edge intelligence-gathering system that led to 73 arrests and the dismantling of an elephant-poaching network. The evidence gathered from these operations was transported to a crime lab for DNA sequencing and ballistics tests.

Despite these efforts, the fingerprint databases in Africa remain underdeveloped, reducing the chances of matches in the kits. However, organisations like the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) are distributing fingerprinting kits to police and rangers in 23 countries across Africa and Asia, offering hope for a brighter future in the fight against wildlife crime.