Spanish police have arrested a 60-year-old woman after discovering 15 dead pangolins in her suitcase at Madrid's Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport. The woman had arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last Monday.
Customs officers flagged the suitcase during an X-ray scan, which revealed the pangolin carcasses wrapped in plastic, weighing a total of 40kg. The Civil Guard described the incident as a 'crime against wildlife'.
The pangolins have been sent to a national body that regulates the international trade of protected species for study and assessment. The Civil Guard warned that illegal trafficking of protected species is a serious threat to biodiversity and can result in prison sentences and fines under Spain's Penal Code.
Pangolins are the world's most trafficked mammal, primarily poached for their scales and meat, with demand from China driving the global trade. Their scales are used in traditional medicine despite unproven health benefits, and their foetuses are believed to be an aphrodisiac in some parts of east Asia.
Pangolins are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which Spain is a party. Between 2016 and 2024, more than half a million pangolins were seized in anti-trafficking operations worldwide.
