Britain is at the hub of a growing illegal trade in endangered species, with smugglers taping plants to their bodies, hiding eggs in special body gear or even wearing a live snake belt, campaign groups said on Monday.A report, ‘‘Switching Channels’’, by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Traffic said Britain accounted for 12 per cent of all European Union exports and re-exports of permitted species, illustrating its importance in legal trade and pointing to the potential for illegal exploitation of the networks. The report said Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, also topped the national table for the most seizures of consignments of illegal wildlife. Between 1996 and 2000, Customs and Excise officers made 1,001 seizures — well ahead of the 201 seizures at number two on the list Manchester Airport.The report said that historically the most significant transhipment centres for the illegal wildlife trade had been Hong Kong and Singapore, but that recently the United Arab Emirates had grown in importance. Poor policing internationally was compounded by the 15-member EU’s open internal borders, the report said.
