Wen South African officials for Cape Town international airport bin jam cardboard boxes wey dem label as toys and dey send to China dem begin suspect.

China dey popular as exporter of toys around di world – no be to import dem.

Dem bin pen di boxes for spot check – and instead make dem find di promised toddler cooking set or board game inside, dem discover bundles of risky succulent plants all wey dem wrap wit care for toilet paper.

In total dem find 23,000 conophytum plants inside di consignment for April 2022, investigators for di Endangered Species Unit of the South African Police Service tell BBC.

Di authorities bin don dey on alert afta one courier company nearly dey duped by di same ploy few months earlier.

About one year later, di authorities same airport bin come across cardboard boxes wey dem label as mushrooms. Dem also dey export am to China.

Wen e dey open, dem see bags wey dem usually use for onions wey succulents full inside – around 12,000 pieces.

“E no dey stop,” one police investigator tok. “You find out dia one method, and dem go come up wit anoda smuggling idea.”

Since 2019, more dan one million succulents wey dem harvest illegally represent 650 different species dey seized by authorities as di plants dey travel through southern Africa to oversea markets, according to Traffic, one international organisation wey dey investigate wildlife crimes.

Tori be say South Africa, some 3,000 trafficked succulents dey intercepted by enforcement agencies each week.

Sake of growing demand for dem as ornamental plants, new markets dey show, particularly across East Asia, wit many African kontries now involve to supply dem, largely from di wild, according to di South African National Biodiversity Institute.

Dis don threaten biodiversity for regions like di Succulent Karoo – one area wey dem dey call di World Wide Fund for Nature wey cover large dry zones of South Africa and Namibia. Dey support more dan 6,000 succulent species – 40% wey dey nowhere else, conservation organisations tok.

One of di most-common smuggled succulent species for conophytum wey some sub-species get trade restrictions.

Dis na sake of, according to di International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, dem dey critically endangered or endangered.

And postal and courier services don become one easy way to smuggle small plants like succulents, wildlife trade experts tok.

One recent report by di World Customs Organization (WCO) find say di most common method of smuggling flora and fauna na to pack dem for small parcels to post, wey account for 43% of all seizures for 2022 – increase of 17% from the previous year.

“E get many different ways criminals fit use to hide illegal goods for di post. One common method na to use children toys,”Dawn Wilkes tok, postal security programme manager for di Universal Postal Union – one global association of postal services.

She bin tell di BBC say those kind consignments generally originate from Africa or Asia.

And customs agents sabi wella say traffickers be nothing if no be cunny-cunny.

Last March, officials for Hai Phong city, for north-eastern Vietnam, discover one interesting shipment from Nigeria.

Di containers full of wetin look like black horns. For closer look, dey find say na ivory tusks wey dem paint black.

Experts wey dey investigate illegal wildlife trade say e no common for tusks to dey disguised wit paint – though for di past Vietnamese authorities get seized ivory wey dem hide for shipments of cow horns.

Di Hai Phong seizure include some 550 pieces of elephant tusks, wey weigh nearly 1,600kg (252st) lead to di arrest of two p ipo for Nigeria  for connect wit shipment, according to di Wildlife Justice Commission, wey work wit di kontri customs service on di case.

Di illegal trade for ivory mainly affects Angola, di Democratic Republic of di Congo, Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and na one of di major reasons behind decline for African elephants – di population don fall by around 90% over di past 30 years.

Di African forest elephant dey di IUCN red list say e dey critically endangered.

Endangered sharks off di coast of Africa also dey prove difficult to protect -especially as dia fins be key ingredient for shark fin soup, one ogbonge delicacy for many parts of di world.

E get more dan 500 recorded species of sharks, and di trade for many of dem dey allowed. But to sell and buy parts of around 60 shark species dey restricted as dem don become endangered.

And dis na di loophole wey traffickers dey exploit, wildlife trade investigators tok.

Some cases dey detected for South Africa in recent years wen customs authorities dey faced wit shipments wey get mix of both legal and illegal shark fins.

“Criminals go claim say di endangered species actually be di legally traded species,” Sarah Vincent, one expert wit Traffic, tell BBC.

“So e dey key say law enforcement sabi how to tell wetin be wetin.”

Dis dey done for South Africa wit di aid of Traffic 3D digital technology, she tok.

Make we say wildlife trafficking cases don become big tin wit different hiding methods, e dey important for enforcement agencies to share informate wit dia regional and international counterparts.

For Elizabeth John, senior wildlife investigator wit Traffic for south-east Asia, one united front against traffickers na di only way to confront dem.

More informate-sharing for years don cause increased seizures.

Confiscations for 2022 dey up 10% compare to 2020 figures, and striking 56% if we compare to 2021, according to WCO report.

But increased seizures also point to one alarming trend.

“Dis statistics suggest say illegal wildlife and timber trade still dey high, and traffickers dey use different techniques wey dey evolve, to avoid di right laws wey dey against dis illegal crime,” di WCO tok.

Wildlife trade experts say di challenge na to keep customs and border control authorities wit better resources, equip dem and train dem to dey ahead of di traffickers ever new tactics.