Police detain 19 over protected species in Hubei

After the ringleader, surnamed Cao was captured, police found 12 wild macaques at his breeding farm. They said he purchased the animals.

Cao confessed that he primarily supplied artificially bred macaques to pharmaceutical companies, the police said. However, because of low survival rates he incurred big losses, so he turned to purchasing wild macaques to pass off as artificially bred ones, the police said.

However, Cao was caught before he could domesticate the macaques and sell them.

Another 10 macaques were rescued from another suspect surnamed Lu. All 22 monkeys were sent to the Dalaoling Nature Reserve in Yichang for care.

After logging the evidence, the police released 43 snakes back into the wild in September. Some of the macaques that were in good physical condition and suitable for release were set free in late October.