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The Ivory Game (2016)
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Shetani-- "the Devil"-- has taken over, taken over the guns, taken over the syndicates. So he has become so powerful. He's the most notorious killer of elephants in this country ever known. We have intelligence that Shetani and his poaching syndicates are in this village. Open up. Police. Where is Shetani? -Where is he? -Show us where your gun is. Where is Shetani? Tell me! Why aren't you giving him up? You, get ready to shoot him. Shetani employs these men to kill elephants. So, we must get Shetani, at any cost, at any risk. This is it. It is an elephant-killing gun. I was just given this gun. This man is an elephant tusk carrier. Shetani became too clever. We were trying to lay traps. Before we laid our hands on him, he disappeared. Delta Uniform from Charlie One. Have you seen One Ton? I saw another group, but One Ton wasn't there. Thanks. Okay, so, they still haven't seen One Ton, and they've done a full circle around the area where he was. He's the biggest elephant we've got left. We lost one of his colleagues earlier in the year. He died just about 500 meters down that way after a poison arrow. Every elephant is at risk at the moment, even the female and calves with only a couple of kilos. A poacher will still make a bit of money for that for his effort. Every time something bad happens, you're losing much, much more than just an individual animal, because elephants have an amazing memory, and they can live 60, 70 years, and the passing down of knowledge and experience is something that is amazing to witness. Calves learn everything they do from their mothers, and they're much more connected to each other than even humans are these days. This is One Ton. And it's good news, because he's just been up into the hills and down the other side into an area which is quite dangerous. He's made a little friend. I'm not sure how they met, but they're oddly attached. He's really relaxed, but the little one can get quite fierce. So we've just got to be a little bit careful with him. One Ton's left tusk is probably two meters long. He's got at least 70, 80 kilos of ivory on him. You're talking top 20 in the world, probably. I've heard stories about elephants hiding their tusks, but I've seen him do it once. Specifically, when they know humans are watching them, they hide their tusks because they know their tusks are valuable. They're definitely intelligent enough to figure it out. Any poacher would risk his life happily to get an animal like this. My officers will search on this side of the hill. I will look with the Land Cruiser. If they find any tracks or a carcass, we will decide how to respond. About seven o'clock this evening, ten shots were heard by a mobile unit. We don't know what's happened yet. It's pitch black, so we're trying to find the scene. It's gonna be really tough. No matter how many men we have, no matter how many guns we have, every time that happens, you just feel like you're fighting against-- fighting against an avalanche that there's no way you can stop. So, we don't really know if there is a carcass. They might still be here, which is why it's still pretty dangerous in there. The poacher's prepared to shoot at you, and you have to be prepared to shoot back. If you don't realize that, then you need to go somewhere else. Let's follow it up the road. But it was two people. Yes, they were two people. We still don't really know what happened, so we're bringing in air support to provide us GPS coordinates to send teams in straight away, but the thickness of the bush and the size of the area means it can take weeks to find the carcass. Elephants cannot protect themselves against a concentrated effort to poach them. No matter what they do, firearms and poachers will win every time. So, everything we do is aimed at helping those elephants fight back. But the reality is, at the moment, we're everything they've got. And without us, they're dying all over the continent. This little statue, it's about $10,000. And this beautiful sword here, this is $200,000. And this tusk here, painted, is a bit less-- 170, 180. She told me the price is already been 20 per cent higher than-- than the former years. Can you ask her how heavy is the weight? -More than 15 kilos. -Fifteen kilos. Yeah, okay. So, this piece is around $330,000. I saw many dead elephants in my life, unfortunately. The first one was a little elephant called Zambezi. He was hacked. I had literally tears in my eyes. And from that moment, I basically devoted my life to try to make a difference. The reason why thousands and thousands of elephants are slaughtered every year is because we have a legal market in China. The problem is that the legal market can rely only on the small quantity of ivory that the Chinese government distributes every year. It's about five tons. It's not enough, five tons. The demand is much higher. So, they actually have to work illegal ivory. Imagine to have, in Europe, a legal market for cocaine or heroin. It would be really easy to launder cocaine and sell it as legal. When you find, in a shop, cocaine, it is legal or illegal. With ivory, it's happening exactly the same. You have a legal market for something that is basically illegal all over the world. We are talking about hundreds of tons of ivory getting into mainland China every year. Ivory trafficking is a serious business. There are powerful individuals that are making a lot of money, and they are able to control politicians, security officers, so you don't easily go to police to report a crime. It's extremely dangerous. You risk your life. You cannot trust anyone. That's why we set up WildLeaks, the first initiative in the world dedicated to wildlife crime whistleblowers. I'm launching the Tor browser. It was uploaded yesterday. We don't know where it's from yet. All right. -Okay, you see it? -One sec. What is this? There's no message, there's-- there's just this video. Like, it's a pile of ivory. Wow. There is a gigantic tusk. Unbelievable. We received a submission through the Tor platform. So, completely anonymous. Tor is a technology developed by the U.S. Navy, so it's impossible to trace back your connection to us. I see some-- some numbers and-- R149039. They obviously have access to some stuff. Can you share this video with a couple of our most trusted collaborators? -You know who. -Okay. They might help us to check all these numbers and all these written parts on the tusks. We'll get on it right now. Okay, I'll call you tomorrow at this time. -All right, bye. -Okay. Bye, Mike. Elephants are pretty amazing, really. They have feelings like a human. And their reactions to the deaths of other elephants shows clearly that the feelings they have for one another goes far beyond our understanding. Elephants revisit scenes of where another elephant's died. They can feel the bones, they smell the ivory if it's still there. They've been known to go and collect tusks that have been taken away from a carcass and return them back to the same carcass, and there's clearly a lot more going on in an elephant's brain than anyone's ever realized. I'm-- You can see how close together they all are. The poachers must've had a real set-up ambush. Whether the elephants sensed danger before they-- before the poachers started shooting, we won't know. But as soon as they did, they would've all clustered together to-- just to protect the babies. You know, we found more than ten cartridges here. Who knows how many they picked up. The poachers from southern Tanzania now seem to be spreading out a bit. This gang, we know there were three Kenyans, four Tanzanians. So, very professional, knew exactly what they were doing. Horrible thing to think, a whole family all clustered together, and... he probably wasn't even aiming. She would've been the first to go down, whereas that one... obviously got wounded a little bit and managed to run 20 or so meters. Not far enough, though. Traders in ivory actually want extinction of elephants, and that is probably the biggest danger. The less elephants there are, the more the price rises. The more the price rises, the more people want to kill them. And this is an ever-ongoing circle that is just gonna end up bringing about exactly what they want: Extinction. I've just sent you a message. Yeah, this is a very important informer, because he's going to assist us to get to the culprits for the Tsavo killing at the border between Kenya and Tanzania in Manyara, all right? Okay. Of course, the biggest one that we are seriously looking for is Boniface Mariango, alias Shetani. His actual photograph we haven't got, but his physical appearance we can describe. We are running more than six informants now, working on him, for every movement he makes. The nickname "Shetani" means "the devil," and he's not easy to-- The name is derived from his cruelty, particularly. One collection from him can range between 500 kilograms to 1,000, 2,000, up to 3,000 kilos of ivory. He's the number-one wanted poacher right now, responsible for more than 10,000 elephants as a single man. He is Maasai by tribe, a Christian, 64 years. He is living at Makame, Kiteto. 64 years old. He can still carry a gun and kill an elephant. Jesus Christ. Each tusk here weighs 15 kilograms. This suggests that this was a very big elephant. If it was a "she," she was still productive. We must have lost several elephant babies by the killing of this elephant. It's a loss to our country. How many shillings did you get for it? -250 USD. -Per kilo? No, for everything. That's about $7. Seven dollars a kilo. In China, this would fetch $3,000 a kilo. So, this old man, with all these hardships he's facing in the bush, and the life he's risking in the bush, when he sells these products to Shetani in his luxurious house in Dar es Salaam, where he has a posh house, he's getting only six per cent, while Shetani goes away with 94 per cent. If he continues this business, there's no chance for the sons and daughters, or his grandsons and granddaughters, to find an elephant in this country. They can only hear of an elephant in the history books and see elephants in pictures. We had over 100,000 elephants, only to come down to less than 50,000 within five years. We cannot sit down and look at this happening. It pains me a lot to see these greedy men who just want to get easy money by merely killing, ruthlessly, these animals. Pains me a lot. In the past, it's always, like, white people are the good guys, the local black people are the bad guys, and the Chinese people are the extremely bad guys. And I think it would be different if this time we could have some Chinese actually being the good guys in this ivory war. Since I was very small, I always have a strong passion for animals, because every time, on my way to the primary school, we would pass a market that people sell, like, live animals and slaughter them right there. Every time I pass there, I feel very sad to see the small animals being slaughtered. So, I guess from then on, I already have a wish that someday I wish I can protect the animals that I love. Because I had this experience as a Chinese journalist doing undercover work in Africa, Ofir is now one of the best persons for me to work with. He's professional. He's been doing these undercover investigations for, what, ten years. So, he really has a lot of experience. Although, sometimes he seems a little bit crazy, but still, I believe he's going to try to make this as safe as possible. Every target that we have came through an investigation that was in the heart of five different syndicates. These are people who are handling containers of ivory. Hong is a very independent individualist. He's very creative. That's also another quality that's very important in an investigator. And he has a strong motivation. But it needs a lot of polishing, and we need to see if it works. So, there is still a long way. And, as we say, you use business words. We're trying to expand. We do timber, we do some minerals. I do a lot of work in West Africa. Well, I prefer to stay South and East Africa. That's a place that I have, actually, knowledge. West Africa-- No, because South and East Africa is where he has knowledge, so he can check you out. Okay? Makes sense? I was given a list of names, and they are all major traffickers in Uganda. My mission is to use myself and my partner as bait to get them to show us the ivory that they have, and then get them arrested. Moving too much is difficult. No, I think it's very okay. When they say "white," that means ivory. And if they say "black", it means the rhino horn. I want to review your targets one by one. -This is the last meeting, right? -Yeah, yeah. -She's already there. -Okay, we'll start with the phone calls. Hello, Joshua. Do you have any ivory, especially raw ivory? Because, you see, I have this great connection with someone in China who is looking for ivory right now in Beijing. So, do you have ivory right now, also? Two hundred kilograms, with you? Okay, no problem. So, give me back the phone to Juliette. Hello, Juliette. So, you are now going with them. Make sure you use our own car, because this could be a trap, okay? So, how-- "The driver wants to know where you are." Okay, so, the driver has asked me-- like, where are you right now? So, you are still in the car? Yeah. Have you seen the merchandise? It's in sacks. In sacks. So, do you think Mr. Joshua is serious? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hear me well? Shit. Listen to me. You're heading for an arrest. And what will happen is that we bring another car, which will be a four-by-four, white. When it comes in, it will have a Chinese guy, which is our guy. And they'll move after him wherever he goes to conduct the arrest immediately when products are being seen. Listen to me, I will insist, because as a Chinese, I won't go into that place. They have to take the things. I understand, but I doubt they will. I understand you, but I doubt they will. Okay? And Tinka is armed. He has a pistol. -Okay? -Yeah. You are going to meet the criminals, and you don't know what is going to happen, whether they will spot your hidden camera, whether they will bring someone to search you, whether they will-- well, whether they will actually shoot you if they find out that you are investigators. And you are the one who is going to be alone facing the traffickers. Hello? Hello? Yes? They are bringing the merchandise here for me to see in my car. And there will be a car coming here, bringing the merchandise. Okay. And we're seeing the car. Ask the policemen to be ready. -Say it again? -Wait a second. I need to make sure that this-- Juliette. Juliette, come to me. Ask Tinka to come out of the car. Just stay here. I was very afraid. So, he took the things to the car to show us. Wow. And then you have the arrest. Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! We're going to cuff you. Where are the cuffs? Where are the cuffs? I feel quite satisfied with this operation because local criminals, they seldom suspect me. Because, unfortunately, they just never imagine, like, a Chinese could be on the right side of the ivory and rhino horn battle. So, I realize, "Oh, this time I can make some difference. I can be part of the change-makers." This is the real trouble area. It's not surprising. There's no barrier at all - to stop the elephants coming in. If there's one place made for elephant conflict, this is it. Must be so tempting for them coming into all this maize. There's no water. They don't have an option. -They've got to come here. -Yeah. Where the heck have they gone? -Over there. -An elephant? Yeah. -Those-- -A lot of them? -Should we go around and have a look? -Yeah, a couple. -On that side. -There's a cow-calf herd. Nice herd. Yeah, they're the ones the guys have been complaining about. I wonder how many elephants have died, that have been speared coming into these farms. That's him with them. -Let's go around and have a look. -There's a big tusker with them. I think it's him. Look at that. Beauty. He's on his way to the farm. By eight o'clock tonight, they'll be right here. It's people and wildlife living in the same place. When elephants are damaging areas of farmland, that farmer is not going to view an elephant positively. And as long as that continues to happen, poaching is gonna be something that's accepted. At the very least, it's getting rid of something that's ruining your livelihood. We got a call saying there are elephants up in the farm. "You guys need to hurry. There's a lot of people coming, and they're all getting-- They're just sick of it, and they're gonna kill an elephant, or as many as they can get." The ellies were just here. They were obviously here about five minutes ago. Two different groups. Possibly, Tim's in one of them. We just saw a lot of them there. They are right there. The ellies are already pretty pissed off. You can see there's a big group of people, about 15 or 20 of them, trying to chase them out, shouting and screaming. So, they're not in a good mood. You can hear them rumbling and screeching to each other. So, we've just got to keep our distance, and then we can hopefully push them pretty quick. I'd rather we do it than they do it. Either one of those will get wounded, or one of them's gonna injure an elephant. And if one of them gets wounded, then they demand we shoot an elephant, which is ridiculous, but that's what happens. Today, this elephant, we will kill! Yes! You look at any one of those people, and you know that they could kill an elephant for sure. And killing an elephant is a real short step to becoming a full-blown poacher. Someone shouted elephant over there, and they thought they saw one, and they've run to go and kill it. You guys ready to run? We've got to get there before they cross the road. Follow me. Keep coming. -Is it on the fence? -Yeah. Here they are. Throw it! Throw it! Yeah, they're running out that way. Calm down, let's talk! My fellow men, please listen to me. Listen, do you see these bananas? These bananas are for my children, not for elephants. You see this maize? It is for my children, not for elephants. You see these oranges? They take my children to school, not elephants. From today, we don't want to see elephants on our farms. We don't want them, lock them. And what do you think is the solution? The solution is to kill them! A fence. Electrification. I agree, but, you know, the fence, it is expensive. We will ask countries in Europe for help. But everybody will have to contribute something. You will have to protect the fence once it is erected. We'll take care of it. If you're lying about the fence, the elephants will be in danger. The elephants will die! That's exactly what we're scared of. A wildlife conflict doesn't sound as bad as poaching, but it doesn't take long for it to become as bad, and then become poaching. Hey. Hi, Richard. No, no, no. Hang on, Richard. I'm just gonna put you on loudspeaker. I want Craig to hear this. Come sit here. Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah, I've got you. Now, I know this is gonna be bad news. Go ahead. Yeah, um, well, it's not confirmed, but I think one of the big tuskers has been nailed. And, yeah. It's right in the area where Satao-- You know, that big cluster that we've been monitoring for some time. And you think it's him. Don't tell me. Yeah, yeah, we saw the carcass, the first carcass, and then landed and went there on the ground. Tsavo Trust confirmed that Satao was shot dead by poisoned arrows. My gut feeling is that 100 per cent it's him. Kenya's most famous elephant in Tsavo East National Park is dead. The giant elephant had tusks that nearly reached the ground and is believed to have been one of the world's largest living elephants. How-- How have we got to this stage as a human race when we just lay waste to everything? Anything we value, anything we see, just gets consumed. I don't know if it's ever gonna make a difference or if we're ever gonna do enough, but we've got to try. That's all there is to it, really. I mean, where do I begin? Look at that. Thousands of tusks can be hidden in these containers already, straight from Africa, en route to China, from here, maybe. So, that's so sad to see that the end of these beautiful animals is here, in a container, in a rusty container. I think that Satao can be in any of these containers, en route to carving factories, and very soon Satao will be chopsticks, rings. That's the end of Satao here. WildLeaks received another leak from the same source with a very interesting document from Hong Kong Customs with very interesting addresses here in Hong Kong of over 100 shops that sell ivory. Here there is the site. He's licensed to possess. And they've been doing some funny tricks, you see? They're blacking out the name. And down here, they're blacking out the quantity, the amount that they're allowed to possess. They're blacking it out. And they are in Chai Wan, which is on Hong Kong Island, in the Eastern District. We need a Chinese investigator, and I think we have the man-- Hong. We'll change just five per cent of who you are. We'll change your name. Ofir Drori assured me that Hong was the person I was looking for. It's possible that they're linked to some gangster and weapons and drugs? -Yes. -Okay. In Hong Kong, organized crime is never far away. -Okay. -Yeah. The triad activity is just beneath the surface. Is it plugged in? All right. That's it. It's working. Wait, the security guard's coming. Hi. The mystery to me is how this ivory trade network is really operating. I really want to find out where are the weak links that we can break to stop this network. The only concern I have when I'm acting against the Chinese criminals is that, because there is strong nationalism in China, I may be seen as a traitor. I don't want to be seen as a traitor, because I believe-- I have been fighting so hard for China's positive image. Deception is a very, very powerful tool. And Hong, he's very deceptive, because he can basically go anywhere and nobody would imagine that he's actually investigating and recording undercover and stuff like that. The shops I have been to before had so little ivory. I have several tons, I have four tons. -Four tons? -Not in the shop, in the storage. You have four tons? Yes. What is strange about that? You must have a huge storage. Ohh. Does he have a lot of stock? It's a lot of money, four tons. That's a question we asked. Based on what he said, one ball is, like, at least 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. Wow. -There's 2,300 a kilo, right? -Yeah. And he's sitting on $9.2 million worth of ivory. A guy like this, you expected to be connected-- you expect him to be connected to the upper layers. He must be connected to the suppliers and to-- -Somehow, right? -Somehow, yeah. In China, ivory is a luxury item that some rich people see as a status symbol. Many people still see animals as part of the natural resources that they can use. This is the same as why everyone buy diamonds, why everyone buys gold. It is not like in the West that most people see animals as the living beings that they are. We are dealing with real ivory investors, speculators, so they are stockpiling because they are sure that the price will rise and rise and rise. That's the future of ivory. All my ivory products are legal. When ivory was outlawed back in 1989, we registered our stock with the Hong Kong government. But the record was not in detail. So, when we sell ivory, I can now use illegal ivory to fill up my stock. And ivory can be legalized this way. The government has absolutely no idea how to regulate this. This person is explaining the whole process, and it's unbelievable. I mean, in itself, it proves that the system they have here in Hong Kong is heavily flawed. So, what do you do? What do you do? It's-- I mean, personally, it's-- it's-- I don't sleep at night sometimes because I have this information, and I don't know with whom I can share it. And I know that if I share it with the wrong person, bye-bye. It is more than fighting a war. The most difficult part is to identify the enemy. The business itself is conducted secretly. The buy is secret, the seller secret, the killer is secret. So, everything is secret. Very different from conventional war. Our main problem is Shetani. Shetani has given warning to our unit that it's either him or us, meaning he's ready to kill my officers, and my officers know this. It seems like this town and whole area is awash with illegal firearms, and are being used for terrorism as well as poaching. We discovered that Shetani has ordered some guns to Zambia. We want to arrest those guns before they get out. Four AK4s and two shotguns. Hello? Hello? Anybody here? You, open up! Police! Open up! Do you have a gun? Where is it? To me, it is not a pleasure to arrest somebody with ivory. To me, it's a pleasure to arrest somebody with a gun. If I can snatch the gun away from him, I'm protecting the living elephants. This motorcycle, it is for the bush. It has no plate number on it. This is because when they go hunting, they don't want to be recorded. So they go without the plate number. Fighting anti-poaching is also saving our country from terrorists. Some of the poachers, they go hunting for elephants, sell the ivory, get money, buy more arms for their jihad war, which is terror war. It has a bullet inside. It's in the chamber. -Do you know how to use it? -No. Why is there a bullet in the chamber? It is a pump-action gun. See, the bullet is in the chamber. Among the bullets that we collected, there was one with a white coverage. That was a very strong bullet. A single one can bring down an elephant, and the gun here is used for that business. We have discovered 14 different syndicates, all belonging to Shetani. They can go with 1,000 bullets and 50 AK-47s. They're the hunting group. So, you can imagine what would happen if a herd of elephants is found, or is caught up. You can imagine the kind of massacre that will come out of that. There's only one solution to bringing human-wildlife conflict under control, and that's an electric fence. Without, people are going to kill the elephant. We've managed to buy some time. The reality is, if the fences aren't put in very soon, thousands of people are going to run out of patience. And no matter what you have in place, thousands of angry people going out to kill elephant are unstoppable. I mean, it's a race against time. At the moment, we're looking at fencing all along there, and this one's actually ongoing, from Kibwezi to the north of the Chyulus. -But not on to the Kilimanjaro. -But not on to the Kili, not that one. So, we've got the same issue, but probably ten years behind you guys, or 20 years, probably even more. There's such cool lessons to be learned from Lewa. You know, because we really were put against the wall. And it was one old chap called Mountain Bull, and he would just cut straight across here, total disregard for fences. When he wanted to go, -Straight through. -he just went. But we've got the underpass here under the main road, and it's only 20 meters wide. And actually, they put vanilla on the rocks. Don't ask me why, but elephant like vanilla. And it drew them in there. And once one elephant had used it, then everybody started using it. -Straight away. -It was all pretty simple. -So, now-- -Yeah, now they're all going through. Ian Craig's an amazing guy. He's someone who's had decades of experience in conservation, from anti-poaching to the ivory trade. You look at him, and he's got his battered shorts and shirt on, he's wearing his All-Stars and no socks. But he's got a private line straight to the U.S. government, the U.K. government and the Royal Family, and he gets these guys to do what they can to help us. You know, we've put in about $600,000. We've got a conference call on Monday again. There are two events in New York. One is with Hillary Clinton, where they are coming in behind the EPI. If we can do that, we've changed the future for elephant, simple as that, just with the stroke of a pen. There's a collared elephant in that group. What I'll do is put in an armed team here in the next few days. You know, these elephants are really vulnerable here. I see that we're at a watershed on the elephant crisis. Helicopters and guns and anti-poaching and intelligence, with all the energy and the best resources in the world, we can't win this war. There's simply not enough men to patrol the ground or cover the ground. We need a political solution to this problem. The country has embarked on an inventory of national ivory and rhino horn stockpiles. This is not just a wildlife issue. It's an economic livelihood issue, it's a security issue, it's an economic issue, and it's about Kenya's place in the world. The inventory process will yield a digital national ivory and rhino horn database. This database will be stored on a secure server, hosted and maintained solely by Kenyan Wildlife Service and with restricted access. We definitely will get rid of all of it. But first of all, we need to know how much we have here. Yeah, it's not all here. It's scattered around the country, and it's very difficult. How many tusks have we done now here? At the moment, here in Nairobi, we've done over 7,000 pieces. -7000? -Yeah, 7,000 pieces. In total, we've inventoried 55 tons. Because it's an electronic database, we can go back to every piece. And, Winnie, from here, it's going into shelves? Yes. Well, ideally, that's what we would like, but we don't have enough shelf space for all this ivory. So, we are creating a virtual shelf. You can see that is shelf number four. So, we would like to build up shelves-- We don't want to spend too much money. Because if we stop the poaching, why would we want the shelves? -That's true. -Perfect. So, no shelves. - No shelves. There's hundreds of millions of dollars sitting in these stores in the wrong hands. There's multiple examples across Africa of ivory being stolen out of government stockrooms and for it to be leaked into the black market. If that ivory doesn't go away, we'll never stop this poaching. So, we need to destroy it. To me, these are all just dead animals, they're dead elephant. They all represent something that should be living and thriving. And what hits me so hard is, where's the beauty in this, these dead bodies? It's just a bag of bones. That's why I just affiliate so closely with this destruction, get it out of circulation, kill the demand. This is the best chance in our lifetime to halt this slaughter. One month ago, I was contacted by the Wildlife Justice Commission and Andrea Crosta from WildLeaks. They told me that, out of the whole world, they have selected a village called Nhi Khe to further investigation on. It's a village that is about 10, 20 kilometers away from Hanoi, and it's, like, the ivory and rhino horn village. They have done some previous investigation, but they never get to understand clearly what was this village about, what's the role of this village. Be careful. Keep cutting with the knife so that the camera can go inside. I think that's enough. Yes. Put it there and then screw it on. Yes, screw, screw. We should put some things here. For example, your tampons. Okay. So if people open the bag and see them, they would close the bag immediately. Our setting is boyfriend and girlfriend, so we need to act accordingly and naturally. Vietnam is very special to me, because this is actually the first time I'm taking more charge, taking more leads inside investigation. This time, I feel very nervous because this is the most dangerous mission I have ever been to. This is, like, a criminal village. So, imagine if you and your partner, you are caught right inside this village, what could happen. So, why is this Nhi Khe village so special? Why is all the ivory trade only going through there? Other villages have potential risks of getting caught by police. Police don't come to Nhi Khe to arrest people? You know, people there have their connections. As we walk into the street, we see, on both sides of the road, people are selling, openly, a lot of ivory and rhino horn products. I just have never, ever seen a place like this. This is rhino horn? We had hundreds of kilograms of ivory, which we just sold this morning. Will they deliver for you? Yes, they will. It's too risky to take on my own. But how do they manage to transfer it across the border? They bribe Vietnamese and Chinese police. If you cannot pay them off, it's a problem. We realize there are some Chinese buyers there. They are professional ivory dealers, so we went with them into a house to meet the traffickers they had already arranged to meet. From where do you import this ivory? Africa. Can you give us the price of ivory material? Blood ivory is 1,300 USD per kilogram. Transportation fee to Hong Kong included, it'll be 1,500 USD per kilogram. We've been doing this for quite a long time, nothing to worry about. As soon as we receive the full payment, we'll deliver it to your home. If you find something wrong about the product, you can get a full refund. We're not going to cheat you. Will it be dangerous when we receive the products? Normally there aren't any problems. But there are always some risks. After all, it's illegal, so we have to do it secretly. It's unbelievable. So, they gave you a bank account at a certain moment, right? How does it work exactly with the bank account? In your understanding, it belongs to them, or it belongs to a middleman? The bank account, in my opinion, belongs to them, because they are all Vietnamese names, and there is one border city between China and Vietnam, like, within China. What they say is, they will open a bank account there, and then what will happen is, usually the buyer will pay the money to the bank account, and then these people would deliver the ivory and rhino horn to China for them. A village like this is certainly covered and protected by corrupt government officials, right? Yep. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. We are talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars, and a gigantic quantity of ivory keeps getting into China, keeps getting into this black hole. As WildLeaks is not easy to operate in China, but today we are going to engage directly and meet an anonymous source. This person sent us a few videos on WildLeaks with very compromising information and offered her help to do more. Internally, we now call this person Omega. She's Asian, and this is pretty much all I can say. So, how are you? I'm okay. A lot of traffic? Yes, as always. Oh, Jesus Christ. This guy... This is another room. ...has ivory up to the ceiling. He has millions of dollars here. He gave us information that in Beijing area, they have about 300, 400 little small workshops. 300, 400 workshops? Wow. Carving the ivory. I said, "Where do they get their stock?" They actually have one of the top government guys. In the company? One of the police guys, or military police guys, he also runs the business. Runs the business? So, he-- Of course, because he's part of the politicians, high-rank. He easily gets the paper, how to sell the ivory. He totally trusts us. He tells us everything. It's worth it that we go there and arrange a lunch or dinner. I'll bring you in, so you're my guest as well. Exactly. He's comfortable with foreigners who is in this business. He knows a lot of Western people also involved with the illegal ivory trade. It's not only Chinese people. The whole operation is built around Omega. We want to get as much proof as possible on these big players and show the Chinese government that the illegal trade here in China is out of hand, to give them more reasons to close down this evil market. Actually, I would say that the destiny of elephants is entirely in the hands of one single person-- the President of China. So, I think it's the first time in history that one person has in his hands the destiny of an entire species. Wildlife crime has transformed into one of the largest organized criminal activities, alongside with drug trafficking. Operation Cobra III, intelligence and information sharing, registered seizures of 1.3 tons of ivory and 65 rhino horns in Mozambique. The reason why I was looking for you, I've heard of you also dealing particularly in intelligence gathering. -I thought that we should share something. -Okay. I have a professional poacher operating in Mozambique and all over Tanzania, all over Tanzania. And of recent, we have intelligence which tells us -that he's operating in Zambia. -Okay. This guy is known as Shetani, "the Devil." His actual photograph, I must admit, we haven't got yet. -Okay. -But this is the man we're looking for. He's killing all the elephants. So, I think that one will also help us. -I've got his network. -Okay. This is him here, and you can see Shetani's syndicate. -These are the people in his syndicate? -Yeah. He has a new number, which I will forward to your phone. Use your intelligence and telephone communication providers to see to whom he could be communicating when he's in Zambia. Hearing that Shetani is in Zambia actually scares me, and now gunshots were heard very close to the national park. So, this is more than a wake-up call to me. You know, all along, Zambia has been quiet. It hasn't experienced serious poaching. -That's them. -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, got it. Shit. They're definitely poached. That's not the one from the shots, because it's too old. -It's not from two days ago. -Okay, yeah. I didn't even know about that one. -Control, Command 1, Command 1. -Go ahead, over. Warden, we've just found an elephant carcass. Copy? -What's that? -Another carcass. -Another carcass. -A fresher one? He's spotted another carcass on the right-hand side. -Was it very fresh? -It's fresh. We've just found another elephant carcass... When an elephant has been killed, it actually breaks my heart, because I imagine how long it has taken for that elephant to grow to that age, and then here is someone who just walks in for a few hours and just guns it down. It totally breaks me. I need to get-- I need to get the samples from this one. The whole head of this elephant is gone, it's missing. There is no head. So, it's like they did not remove the ivory immediately from here. They removed the ivory from another place. They just had to carry the whole head with them. I'm now taking the whole thing very personal. I can't afford to see elephants dying like this. I can't. I can't afford that. How many kilos does he have? He said just five. That's what he told me. Yes, that same five kilos will incriminate him. You will see how you can buy time. -Okay. -Okay, okay. Thank you, thank you very much. We have someone who has ivories in Lusaka, and they would like to sell it, they're in a hurry. So, I just asked our officer to buy a bit of time until we return back to Lusaka. Yeah? Yes, it's an AK-47 one. Most of the ones made in Zambia have a full metal jacket made of copper, yeah. It's a full copper metal jacket, and that doesn't have that. Yeah. Yeah. Seeing these bullets that are of foreign origin, and the information that I have about Shetani, is very worrisome. This is now proving Shetani is really getting down to poaching our elephants in Zambia. If the guy is not going to open after knocking, then we have to fire. When this dealer goes in, is it possible to come and force ourselves-- You can't! It's a very strong gate. Gentlemen, don't just fire until we tell you to. Wait. We are now going in. We're going to a battlefield. Be strong, be vigilant, be alert. We are going to pounce when they start weighing the ivory. And then the informer is going to make a call. We will just let the phone ring, and then officers, immediately, they will know to say, "It's time to go in." -Wait, wait. -Where are they going now? These dealers may very well be connected to Shetani, because he's not the guy who goes in the field. He waits with the collectors, the middlepersons, in the pyramid. They go to him with the ivory. They are now at the house. Guys, come and see your package. One, two, three. You are not taking that one? Can't you see how it is? How can he take it? It started to decay just like a human being does. It is $25 per kilogram? I must calculate. This is the house on my left. There it is with a guard. This woman needs to be grabbed. Just be calm. Just be calm, just be calm. Just be calm, just be calm. - Just be calm! Just be calm! Uh-uh! Why are you grabbing me? Be quiet! Be quiet! Come to the car. - Get in the car! Bring your hands. Go, go, go, go! You, you, you! Don't run away! You've already been seen. Don't run away! Sit down! Sit over there! There he goes! There he goes! You, idiot, you are going to die. Now climb! Climb! Climb over and sit down. We've been following this one. Stand up. Easy, easy. I'm sick. What are you sick of? We are all sick! Let's go. Just break it open! Let's see why they lock it. Where's the light? Light! Push it this side. -This is full-length ivory. -Full-length ivory. -Fresh. Very fresh. -Fresh, yeah. We have been crying that they are killing elephants, and they are here in this house. They go in for more than five years with hard labor. These are people I don't feel pity for. They don't feel pity for the elephants or any other animal that they kill. I don't-- I've got no mercy. We are in a warzone. The poachers, the traffickers, each one is trying to win. So, it is very important that I'm going to be working with Elisifa of Tanzania. We're really going to get down to where Shetani and his poachers are. We are not going to allow them to win the war. The poachers will try to target the elephants here. They'll try to shoot them where there's water. We sleep during the day and work at night. But if the locals keep quiet, nobody will come here. If they talk, the poachers will come. It's been raining for the last month, and so all the elephant have moved out of their sort of historical grounds around the protected areas further east, and it's moving into a Somali area where historically there's been a lot of poaching. And there's less and less presence of government here, so these elephant are on their own, there's nobody looking after them, and they're important to us. To me, every single elephant counts. These aren't just elephant. These are individuals with families and relationships. And so, killing an elephant out of a herd is much more than just killing an individual animal. You're destroying a family. You know, elephant are led by a dominant mother who is making the decisions of where the elephant go and when they go. And if one is to lose that mother figure, suddenly you're left with teenagers, you're left with young animals having to make decisions without any historical memory in a world that is massively dangerous and threatening. No, it's-- Jesus. Poor old girl. Bastards. Poor old elephant. Poor elephant. There. This is the one that killed it. It went directly to the heart. In the end... as long as ivory's worth money, these poor animals are going to be annihilated. And these poachers will keep going till these elephant are dead. I'm sorry, mother. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London Heathrow Terminal 5. Are we really, in our generation, going to allow the biggest mammal on earth to disappear? Losing elephant from Africa, it's just a slower erosion of humanity. And what's next? We'll lose the rhino, we're gonna lose the giraffe, we're gonna lose the lion. Suddenly, we're gonna have an empty world, full of people, but nothing wild. My mission is to find good, serious money to invest into elephant conservation in Africa, and that money has to come from somewhere. We need to build fences, we need to put in water, and just managing elephants costs money. And yes, it's a national responsibility, but it's actually a global responsibility. The world wants elephants. -No need to try it all on? -I'll get you to try it on. We just want to make sure it fits perfect. That's the 16, and I'm gonna grab the 16 1/2 as well. I just want to make sure it's nice and long enough so we can see the cuffs. It just looks sharper that way. Putting on suits and ties and this high-- all the froth and bubble around an evening, it's part of the sight of making conservation important for people. The Duke of Cambridge has been a personal friend for many years, and I'll be seeing him today. We'll be talking through it, all about ivory. But I'm seeing him as a friend, and I'm just sharing a mutual passion about what we can do for elephant. Sadly, Africa continues to face unprecedented challenges in terms of poaching, driven by the flourishing illegal trade in wildlife parks. Africa's elephant population has crashed, from 1.3 million in 1979 to approximately just 400,000 today. The rangers face grave danger every day. Over the last ten years, over 1,000 rangers have given their lives in the name of conservation. We live in a sorry world when an elephant requires the sacrifice of a human being for its own survival. But these people cannot face the bullets and the threats alone. It is up to governments and international bodies to unite behind them, ensuring that their efforts on the ground are fruitful. - Let's check the cameras. You have it? - I do, I do. -So, you keep yours in the bag, right? -Yeah. So... okay. I'll put the camera on the table. It's like an evening bag, so I leave it on the table. I have another few friends coming along to the dinner as well. So that will make the dinner look more relaxed. He gets to know my other friends as well. Of course, okay, great. Like so. All right, let's do it. Grizzly bear. It's a blanket made from wolf leg skin. Ah, from wolf? So, you need a lot of wolves. Only legs. Wolf. Wolf skins. They need about 100 wolves. Yeah. You see that picture? It's made by butterflies. -All with butterflies. -From Brazil. Butterflies are from Brazil. It's like panda to China. It's kind of like the most first-class, protected species. You can't even export. Oh, wow. Usually they put this... I'm really happy because he takes us to this unbelievable room filled with all possible stuffed animals and wildlife products. So, we are really busting this guy. And then everything goes wrong. Close the door! Close the door! Where is the camera from? -Can we talk? -What is this? Headed to the bathroom. There you go. Fuck. Really, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. It's all happening, like, in ten seconds. I saw one looking at this bag. He grabbed the bag, he opened the bag, he found the camera and... he destroyed the whole bag and the whole camera with all the wires and everything. And then there was a moment of, like, ice. And then, Omega-- I could see it in her eyes, but she also told me, in order to better protect them, to get out of that room as soon as possible. Because if they had decided to check everyone and then Googled my name, and then they would've found WildLeaks after five milliseconds. So, I saw that they were kind of okay with me, so I asked, "Can I go to the toilet? Look, I leave here my bag, everything. I just need to go to pee." So, they let me go, and in the bathroom, in the toilet, I unwired myself and I put everything here. So, I have everything here. Here I have the camera and the mic. I put it here. The frustration is that, at this point, I cannot do anything for her, for them. I really hope they will find a way to talk themselves out somehow. Yeah, this is the moment, I think. This is the bag. And then she found something, and she put it in front of the camera. Back. And then she grabbed it, and she's probably looking-- "Why she's putting this thing here?" And then they found it. Now they are checking the bag. He's checking her phone. He also grabbed the phone. So, it's just bad luck and clumsiness at the end of a very long day. That's what it was. But now they're in trouble. And then I get the message. She is safe. The team is safe. So, the team got out safely, thank God, because the traffickers thought we were working undercover with the government, and they're fucked. I just talked to Omega, and she's nervous. We're dealing with the top dealers, so you don't know with whom they are connected-- with mafia, triads. It's too risky to stay in the country, so we decided to leave China as soon as possible. How are you? Good, good, good. So happy to see you. -Yeah, here's the order. -That's the thing. All the footage is on this. Yeah, we need to take action. It's just the beginning. Yeah, it's just the beginning. There is a lot of incriminating stuff, at least enough to trigger local investigations. And we'll go public with that. I just say yes, go and do it. I'm really concerned about your safety. Potentially, your picture can be anywhere. Then I'm just out of it. I go, I just go disappear. I have to ask you why-- why you are risking your life. I think it's decision-making time for China. When they see what the traders really are doing, I think the government will wake up and say, "Wow, the legal traders are doing illegal stuff." It's providing government a chance to make it better. Yeah. Thank you. We'll do our best. Hello, Boni. What does she know about him? The suspect is around his home. Now we are planning to go there. It's possible to effect an arrest. Okay, what do you need for this operation? What do you need now? It is support, support. Because that guy is armed, and he has many arms there. I think you should plan carefully, go with some commandos. The information coming in right now is saying that Shetani has been seen near his house in Dar es Salaam, and he will get into his home anytime from now. Chico, tell Mweko to get three, four officers to provide cover. They have more guns. The special forces should be there if they try to run. I've been looking for this man for more than three years. I've been missing him so many times. So, I will rush back to Dar es Salaam, but I will only be excited when I'm told, "Yes, we have Shetani in our hands." Hurry up and spread out! Shetani! Shetani, we know everything. You understand me? We already have your vehicle. Shetani, where are the other cars you use for your ivory? Don't lie to us! I've just received the information that my hard-core poacher, Boniface Mariango-- Shetani-- has been arrested. At last, we have him. Clap hands, men, for the good job. Good. Ahh. Ahh. How are you? I'm fine. -What's your name? -My name is Mr. Boniface. Mr. Boniface. What about your nickname? -Shetani. -Shetani. -Speak up. -The Devil without mercy. The Devil without mercy. Okay. Seeing this man arrested-- Oh, my friend, it was a-- I couldn't believe my ears, neither could I believe my eyes, until I came close to him and even touched him. I said, "Yeah, really, we have you." We know everything about you. We know you very well. We know you better than you know your shirt. So, it's better you don't argue too much. When we interview you, just be open. When he was arrested, we managed to get the cars that Shetani owns and uses in poaching to traffic ivory. Look, ivory pieces. Very good. This is not part of the car. And it looks like some modifications were made by removing this tank. So, it simply means this car has carriage spaces. You understand? -It means all this is for... -Ivory. For sure, when we interrogate him, he's going to unveil to us these international brokers and traffickers, but I want to pull as many people as I can on my side. Because a one-man war can never be won. But if I can convince other persons to join me in this fight, for sure, we can see the number of these endangered animals growing again to the old numbers, where we had over 100,000 elephants in Tanzania. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now descending to Hong Kong International Airport. Please return to your seat and make sure that your... It's the final phase of our long investigation here. We acquired a lot of incriminating evidence about illegal trafficking. In Hong Kong, I'll be meeting a member of the local government, a member of the Parliament, and I will present all the evidence that we have been, you know, accumulating in the last year. Hello. Welcome to Hong Kong. Thank you very much. Thank you. We work in the shadow, but at the end of the day, you have to give what you found to media, to journalists, politicians, and they have to do their part of the job. Together, we can really change things. So, they're literally laundering ivory here in Hong Kong all the way to China. It doesn't even stay in Hong Kong, actually. It goes there. Exposing myself in media and getting my face known will mean the end of my investigation career. That will put a lot of risk on myself, on my families, on my venture, on my colleagues, and many people have warned me about it. And I have been quite concerned as well, to be honest. But at the same time, I think it's very important to let the world see there are Chinese trying to fight for elephants as well, trying to fight back. This could be the turning point of this whole battle for elephants. From now on, China will be part of the solution. I am very ashamed. There is always someone who asks me, "Why is Hong Kong the largest ivory smuggling port in the world? Why do you Chinese want to buy ivory? What do you use it for? Don't you think it's very cruel, to kill elephants just for ivory decorations?" It's not the first time that NGOs and other entities conduct undercover investigations. We can now see that ivory traders use their official licenses to launder illegal ivory. World press is here, CNN is here, everybody is here. So, having a politician like Elizabeth Quat, Member of the Parliament here in Hong Kong, talking openly about this issue, presenting evidence and asking for changes, she will generate huge public pressure. I now call for a complete ban of the ivory trade in Hong Kong. When the buying stops, the killing can, too. Maybe we are very close to a big change. I feel that the government of China is going to the right direction. I think we are very close to a total ban of the legal market of ivory in China. This is the only decision that can save the elephants. And, yes, I have hope. For the first time in years, I have hope. Many of these tusks belonged to elephants which were wantonly slaughtered by criminals. We want future generations of Kenyans, Africans and, indeed, the entire world, to experience the majesty and beauty of these magnificent animals. Poachers and their enablers will not have the last word in Kenya. We're training men to kill men to keep elephant alive, and we don't need to do that. We just need to get this out of circulation. I can't really put it in words, what this means, to get rid of this ivory. But Africa's got 700 tons of ivory. We're burning 15 tons. So there's a long way to go. That's some progress. That's progress. The black market price of ivory is still just going up-- all our information. So, the threat hasn't changed. It makes me enormously sad. Because I don't know exactly how many there are or what the main tusk weight is. Probably, upwards towards 1,500 elephants we're looking at behind us. And if you actually just use your imagination, think of the number of deaths and suffering, the animals wounding, and then the bereavement of the survivors-- it's all there behind us in one great, big stack. This ivory has been moved subversively across continents, been sold under the table. This is black money. It's fueling international crime. This is an international problem. It's not Africa's problem. The individuals that are fighting this battle, they can't win it alone. It's too big, it's too complex. Fencing development is the future when you look at Africa. There's no choice involved. It's going to happen. And the people of Africa want the same things that everyone else wants. They want to be able to have a TV, they want to have a house which is not knocked over. They want to be able to store their food in an area where an animal doesn't get in there and finish it. Internet, which no one really has here. And without it, these guys are never gonna agree to living with wildlife unless they get the best of both worlds. The United States and China have made a commitment to stop ivory trade. U.S. President Barack Obama and China President Xi Jinping announced that they will ban commercial trade of ivory in their respective countries. China and Hong Kong are home to the largest ivory market in the world, while the United States is one of the world's largest wildlife markets. |
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