Intelligence & Investigations

Every major case in the Task Force record began as a piece of information: a community tip, a customs anomaly, a pattern spotted by an analyst. The Task Force exists to make sure that information never dies in an inbox — it moves, quickly and securely, to the institution that can act on it.

Member intelligence services (ISO and ESO), the Police Criminal Investigations Directorate, UWA's intelligence unit, the Financial Intelligence Authority, URA customs enforcement and Interpol NCB Kampala share intelligence through Task Force focal persons under agreed Standard Operating Procedures. Financial investigation runs alongside physical interdiction, so that seizures of product are followed by pursuit of the money and the organisers behind it.

This intelligence-led model has produced results that reactive policing could not: the interception of 740 kg of pangolin scales and 58 kg of ivory in December 2021, the detection of 15 kg of rhino horn concealed in pineapples in 2022, and the arrest of insiders — including a serving traffic officer found with 34 kg of ivory in 2023.

Public reports are part of this system. Every tip submitted through our Report Wildlife Crime channel is reviewed and, where warranted, routed into the same intelligence pipeline — anonymously if the reporter chooses.