A new RUSI report reveals that wildlife laundering has become a sophisticated financial crime used by criminal networks to mask illegal profits through seemingly legitimate businesses.
Wildlife trafficking is no longer only an environmental crime. It is emerging as a new form of financial offense. According to An Illusion of Legality: Wildlife Laundering in Colombia and Mexico, a new report by RUSI researchers Jennifer Scotland and Alexandria Weeden, criminal groups are exploiting legal wildlife industries to turn illegally sourced species into “clean” assets, hiding profits behind the façade of licensed businesses and regulated supply chains.
The report demonstrates how breeding farms, sanctuaries, seafood exporters, and commercial traders have become conduits for laundering high-value species, including big cats, caimans, sharks, and poison frogs. With the global illegal wildlife market estimated at $20 billion annually, the process has evolved into a lucrative, low-risk mechanism for organised crime groups, including drug-trafficking cartels, to disguise revenue streams, move illicit goods across borders, and legitimise their financial flows.
In Mexico, poorly regulated wildlife sanctuaries have served as fronts for exporting large shipments of lions, tigers, and jaguars, raising concerns about weak oversight and potential collusion with corrupt officials. In Colombia, the caiman-skin trade has seen an estimated one-third of exports sourced illegally, while species like poison frogs are smuggled out of the country and integrated into foreign breeding operations where they command high international prices.
The report also highlights how armed groups have used illegal pirarucu fishing to launder drug profits, moving fish alongside cocaine, while Mexico’s shark fin and sea cucumber supply chains have shown similar criminal convergence with cartel-linked exporters.
“This research shows how rogue actors subvert legal wildlife markets to mask illegal activity,” said Jennifer Scotland. “Wildlife laundering harms biodiversity, local economies and security.”
The authors call for closing regulatory loopholes, classifying wildlife trafficking as a predicate offense for money laundering, improving cross-border intelligence sharing, and adopting modern traceability technologies. Without systemic reform, the report warns, wildlife laundering will remain a profitable channel for organised environmental and financial crime, deepening insecurity, degrading ecosystems, and undermining community livelihoods.
