Knesset committee extends money laundering law to wildlife trafficking |
In a victory for wildlife conservation, the Knesset’s Law Committee approved a temporary order that recognizes trafficking in wildlife and protected flora as offenses under the Money Laundering Prohibition Law.
Monday’s order, already operational, will last for two years.
That will give time for the Wildlife Protection Law to be amended to define trafficking offenses under aggravated circumstances as criminal offenses punishable by a four years’ imprisonment. Upon completion of the amendment to the Wildlife Protection Law, which will require Knesset approval, the temporary order will become permanent.
The order allows enforcement authorities to go beyond the small cogs in the system and follow the money to track down the more important criminals involved in an industry often cited as the fourth-largest category of illegal global trade, after narcotics, counterfeiting, and human trafficking.
It will enable them to confiscate both the proceeds from crimes and the instruments used to commit them.
Among the animals trafficked into Israel and caught over the past three years were lion cubs and dozens of vervet, green, and guenon monkeys.
According to Channel 12, those animals were smuggled from Libya, transferred to drug traffickers in........