Scotland Yard’s small wildlife unit opens its store of raided
treasures for the first time
Vikram Dodd Police and crime correspondent
Mon 28 Jan 2019 07.00 GMT
DC Sarah Bailey with some of the finds she has seized from illegal
traders. Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian
Row upon row of primate skulls sit in a glass case, jaws stuck
forever in a grimace. Rhino horns big and small rise from a table, a depiction
of Jesus on the cross in ivory lies on a table, as does a polar bear skin; in
the corner a rack is laden with fur coats; another glass case contains mounted
butterflies.
The items – a mix of the achingly beautiful and the macabre – sit
in a storeroom in south London. They are all items seized by Scotland Yard’s
wildlife crime unit and behind most is a story showing how greed, obsession and
the yearning for profit collide.
This week the small unit made headlines with its investigation of
Stephanie Scolaro, a London heiress and Instagram model who imported and sold
hats made of python skins. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to community
service and in a later interview the heiress questioned what harm she had done.
DC Sarah Bailey has an answer: “Illegal wildlife is the
fourth-biggest illegal market in the world behind drugs, guns and human
trafficking.”
The trail that led to Bailey knocking on Scolaro’s door, started
in Indonesia where poachers killed and skinned the snakes to order.
The skins were sent via Germany where their customs intercepted
them wrapped in a travel bag addressed to a woman in Mayfair.
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