Police in Gulu is holding two suspects one of them a woman after they were found in possession of pangolin scale worth millions of shillings.
The pair is being held at Gulu Central Police Station for questioning.
Police suspects the trio wanted to sell the scales of the rare animals said to be on great demand in Asia where its meat is a delicacy and its scales has medicinal value.
Jimmy Patrick Okema, the Aswa Region Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), confirmed the arrest on Monday during a press briefing and said police acted on a tipoff leading to the arrest of the suspects.
Okema identified the suspects as Grace Abalo and one, Alex Cakku.
Okema explained that Abalo attempted to buy 21KGS of sales of Pangolin from Cakku before she was picked by police.
It is not clear where Cakku got the dead animal’s scales from. But Pangolins are known to be in Kidepo and Murchison Falls National Park. Early this year police in Kitgum arrested four men including a police man for attempting to sell of two live Pangolins. Kitgum neigbours Kidepo National Park.
Okema revealed that Cakku was found at Evening Star Hotel, along Acholi road in Gulu town before he was arrested and brought to Gulu Central Police Station.
Police says the duo will be charged with being in unlawful possession of protected wildlife species contrary to section 30 & 35 of the wildlife act.
Demand for Pangolin scales and mean is causing rampant poaching that is decimating the pangolin population in East and Central Africa.
In Vietnam and some parts of China, pangolin meat is considered a delicacy, while its scales of keratin, the protein in fingernails and rhino horn, are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Pangolin has been described as the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal.
