Rosewood detection – Customs smell a rat

by Kurulu Kariyakarawana

The Customs officials who detected the biggest ever Rosewood detection in the world last week, are checking on a renowned shipping agency to ascertain whether it had facilitated its services although it knew that the consignment was illegal.

The suspicion arose when the Customs found two declarations on the cargo documents of the carrier vessel and the documents of the shipping agency. Although in the documents of the seized 28 containers it were declared as general cargo, the manifest of the shipping agency declared it as timber.

This roused suspicion whether the shipping agency had deliberately facilitated its services for the illicit consignment despite Rosewood being a restricted item under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a senior Customs official said.

Since the contraband came in as a part of a transshipment, the Customs officials couldn’t do much on its consigner or consignee. But they are keeping a tab on the shipping agency which was in charge of the shipment.

Customs seized 28 containers carrying 3,660 logs of fine grown Rosewood worth over Rs. 1 billion ($7 million) which arrived at the Colombo Port from the Eastern African port Zanziba reportedly bound for Hong Kong.