Bukit Aman police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin said the raids were conducted to clamp down on illegal wildlife trading and poaching as well as theft of national forest products.

She said one of the raids received recognition from the Global Tiger Forum, an international body exclusively set up for the conservation of tigers in the wild.

“This followed the arrest of a man in Selangor and seizure of 69 wild animals estimated to be worth RM1.2 million by the Wildlife Crime Bureau and the police special intelligence unit,” she said in a statement today.

All the cases were investigated under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and Section 15 (1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

Noorsiah said last year, during operations, a total of 23 cases were recorded and seizures worth RM2.68 million were made.

She said the raids helped save various wildlife categorised as protected species such as rock magpies, blue monkeys, stone cats, hill myna birds, eagles, foxes, iguanas and jungle fowl.

She said last year’s operations uncovered animal smuggling activities by sea using fishing boats. This came after two men, including a Vietnamese man, were arrested in Kelantan.

She said following the arrests, 59 iron cages containing foxes and a cage containing a white-breasted water hen were seized.