Customs officers check the seized pangolin scales (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Shanghai customs recently discovered a large batch of smuggled pangolin scales, cracking the largest such smuggling case in China and seizing 3 tons of the endangered species' scales, China News Service reported. Three suspects involved in the case have been arrested as police continue to investigate.

Customs officers carried out a standard inspection of a container imported from Africa on Dec. 10. However, the goods, declared as chafuta wooden poles, displayed an uneven texture. As a result, 101 bags of pangolin scales were discovered inside the wooden poles when officers opened the container.

A customs officer displays a pangolin scale (Photo/Chinanews.com)

According to an endangered animal and plant protection expert, each pangolin usually possesses only 0.4 to 0.6 kilograms of scales, which means that 5,000 to 7,500 pangolins must have been killed to produce 3 tons of scales. Subsequent inquiries have revealed that the suspects started smuggling pangolin scales in 2015.

Pangolins, which are under second-class state protection in China, are often hunted and smuggled because their meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are believed to have medicinal value. Under China's criminal law, individuals who catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals under state protection are subject to fines and jail time.

All varieties of pangolins are listed in the appendix of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, meaning that pangolins are under the highest level of protection in the world. As a result, any kind of international pangolin trade is prohibited.