Official Decries Animal Trafficking

Animal traffickers smuggle $47 million worth of endangered species annually from Colombia’s Amazon region, damaging its delicate ecological balance, Environment Minister Eduardo Verano de la Rosa said. Every year, about 7 million animals, mostly reptiles, are illegally smuggled to the U.S. and Europe. There is also evidence of an alliance between animal traffickers and drug smugglers because cocaine has been found in some seized shipments of exotic reptiles. The business can be lucrative. A macaw, an endangered species, can be bought in the Amazon for about $20 and fetches up to $10,000 in New York.