Smoked monkey and whole sharks: the suitcase smugglers feeding Europe’s hunger for bushmeat

Customs officers and scientists are working together to combat the highly lucrative illicit trade in wildlife meat that is helping to push some species to extinction

• Photographs by Christophe Smets

At Brussels airport, customs staff are digging into suitcases and cooler boxes full of charred meats and fish. There are boxes of flies with shrivelled dead caterpillars and juicy live ones. It is 6am, and they are checking all hold luggage from four morning flights - three from Africa and one from China - in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal meat from wildlife making its way into Europe via this major transit hub. There is a lingering smell of dried seafood.

Staff here are used to finding all kinds of creatures in baggage, from a 1.5-metre basking shark folded inside a box to a whole smoked monkey. But most meat comes dried, smoked, charred and chopped, so it is hard to identify it. In some cases, that's probably the point. A hunk of meat being confiscated could be from a cane rat, catfish, monkey or pangolin - or it could just be a bit of beef.

Customs officers examine a passenger's luggage at Brussels airport