The wealth and variety of confiscated contraband at London Airport

Rhino horns, turtles and predatory cats, rare butterflies and boxes of illegal drugs - all this and much more was tried to be smuggled into the UK ... Between April 2012 and April 2013, English customs confiscated more illegal items than in any other year.

So let's go to the "bins" to look at the variety of items that unlucky smugglers tried to smuggle into British territory.

(Total 22 photos)

1. All these items were confiscated by customs officers under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). For the period 2012/2013 690 items were confiscated, up 509 items from the previous year. Including: 3890 kg of medicines with extracts of rare plant species, 326 ivory items and 93 live animals.

2. In a climate-controlled customs warehouse, shelves are bursting with confiscated items waiting to be inspected by CITES experts. Sometimes ivory items are painted black to pass them off as wood.

3. One of the experts with bitterness in his voice says: "Nothing surprises me anymore."

4. Over the past two years, the import of illegal ivory items into the UK has increased by almost 25 times.

5. Last year, 80.7 kg of elephant tusks were confiscated at the border at Heathrow Airport. They are worth tens of thousands on the black market. For comparison, in 2010 only 3.3 kg were confiscated. Most likely, this is only a small percentage of the total volume of tusks illegally exported from Africa, which are used to make jewelry for Chinese buyers who want to show off their wealth.

6. In almost four tons of drugs, drugs were found that contain extracts of rare plant and animal species - from crushed rhinoceros horn to rare orchids.

7. Smugglers even transport live animals – 466 rare Balkan tortoises were confiscated at Heathrow this month.

8. Other exotic animals rescued this year include Geoffroy's cat, two royal vultures and the tayra, a mustelid from South America.

9. In September, the UK Foreign Secretary warned that $19 billion in illegal goods and animals is being traded worldwide, and "money from this trade is used to support criminal gangs and terrorism." Although the international trade in ivory was banned in 1989, customs officers continue to confiscate items made from this material every year.

10. In total, more than 2.5 million illegal items were confiscated by British customs officers last year. They cost tens of millions of dollars.

11. One of the confiscated "objects" was a stuffed lovebird Fischer, who was sitting on a grenade (pictured right). This "masterpiece" cost £8,000. Senior customs officer Grant Miller says that this surge in demand for rare species of animals and plants is not caused by demand from the British side, but by the growth of wealth in China and the Far East.

12. “Demand is driven by human greed, in particular consumer demand in China and the Far East. People have money to spend, and ivory and rhinoceros horn are status symbols to show off.”

13. This can also be blamed on the growth of the economy of Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, for they received direct access to ivory.

14. Basically, they confiscated small parcels sent by courier from Africa to Asia. They weighed no more than 15 kg, but they never reached their destination - at Heathrow they were intercepted by representatives of the law.

15. "Chinese workers in Africa regularly buy these items to sell them for a fortune at home."

16. The illegal trade in ivory is on the rise worldwide, with 17,000 elephants killed illegally in 2011 alone. Criminals try to smuggle anything that might be valuable on the black market.

17. The fact that these actions can lead to the extinction of rare species does not bother any of them.

18. English customs officers are famous for their ability to find illegal items. “Our customs officers work tirelessly and are constantly cooperating with the police, the National Criminal Agency and international authorities to stop the growth of illegal trade,” says Grant Miller.

19. A particular surge in demand is observed in the field of fitness and beauty.

Previously, rare species were used only in traditional medicine, but now they are increasingly used as additives to steroids and various creams. Unfortunately, the black market is evolving.

20. There are more and more new products and products for skin care, face care, hair care, etc., for the manufacture of which rare species of plants and animals are used. And while China and Vietnam are still the top buyers on the black market, major cities like London are at the center of such scandals, as it is at their airports that smugglers are detained.

21. This year, 500 kg of face cream were found containing banned ingredients. They tried to smuggle cream through Britain from China.

22. In May, a resident of Manchester received six months in prison for trying to import 750 kg of coral from Vietnam into the country. There was also a case where customs officers confiscated 2.3 tons of Indian sandalwood that they were trying to transport to Hong Kong.