Barbary macaques are the most trafficked mammal in Europe, accounting for 25% of all seizures, and are highly vulnerable to extinction, listed in Annex I of the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).

In the past 40 years their population has seen a decline from 21,000  to less than 7,000 individuals.

Brought in to the EU from Algeria and Morocco by organised crime networks, the monkeys are captured in the wild as cubs, drugged, and transported in locked suitcases in the trunks of cars or as hold baggage on aeroplanes.

Once in Europe they can fetch €2,000 from private buyers with an…