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olice have increased raids on suspected illegal traders of protected animals with many cases being uncovered across the country.

In West Java, the police secured a total of 34 lemurs and arrested the persons allegedly behind the illegal trade in the protected primates through social media in West Bandung regency and Bandung city.

“All of the lemurs are alive,” West Java Police’s spokesperson Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus said.

He said the case was cracked following the arrest of one man for keeping lemurs without a license in West Bandung. This led to the arrests of two other persons alleged to be the distributors of the nocturnal animals.

West Java Police’s special crime detective deputy director Adj. Sr. Comr. Diki Budiman said five people had been named suspects in the case so far. Three were alleged to be the hunters while the other two were collectors.

“The rest are still at large,” Diki said, adding that the illegal trades were committed by making use of a Facebook account, Joss Animal.

He said hunters allegedly poached the lemurs in Garut, Sumedang, Cililin, Cianjur, Sukabumi and Tasikmalaya and sold them for Rp 50,000 each. He added that they were eventually sold again for between Rp 200,000 (US$15.4) and Rp 500,000 each.

Aris Hidayat of the International Animal Rescue’s rehabilitation center said that the lemurs suffered from dehydration. He also said that the lemurs had to be rehabilitated before being released back into their natural habitat.

In Jambi, the police’s special crime detective directorate also claimed to have uncovered a syndicate trading in protected animal skins worth billions of rupiah.

Police said they seized three estuarine crocodile skins, a Sumatran tiger skin and more than 2,000 skins of snakes and biawak (lizards). They were all ready for sale.

Jambi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Yazid Fanani said the animal skins were stored in a warehouse on Jl. Mayjen Sutoyo in Telanaipura, Jambi. He said one Sumatran tiger skin was sold for Rp 100 million to a buyer from outside Jambi. “We are continuing to investigate the syndicate,” Yazid said on Thursday, adding that one man was being detained at the Jambi police headquarters and the skins were being kept as evidence.

The program manager of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Indonesia, Dwi N. Adhiasto, said that there was still a considerable amount of trade in protected animals allegedly involving conservation institutions in the country, amounting to 72 cases in the last two months. Last year’s figure was 93.

Dwi said the protected animals frequently traded included tigers, elephants, orangutan, rhinos, rangkong birds and pangolins. He said the trades were well organized and conducted through online media by a syndicate.

As of September, he added, three cases of online trades of protected animals had been revealed and suspects were arrested.

He also said that the syndicate was feared to have involved individuals from conservation institutions or zoos in its operation, arguing that some of the traded animals also came from zoos or other conservation institutions.

He said certain animals kept in these places were deliberately not given enough food, which would lead to their deaths by starvation. The carcasses were then sold by the respective individuals to the syndicate.

He said this has happened in zoos in Bandung, West Java, and Yogyakarta. “The perpetrators have been arrested and tried.”

He blamed the phenomenon on the high prices of protected animals, especially in the international market. Providing an example, he said his agency and the police had recently foiled an attempt to smuggle Borneo lizards to Germany, where the animals were priced at Rp 4 million each abroad. In Indonesia they sold for Rp 200,000.