{"id":503157,"date":"2026-02-25T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503157\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:54:12","slug":"malaysian-resort-owners-face-huge-fines-jail-over-exotic-pangolin-menu-for-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503157\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian resort owners face huge fines, jail over \u2018exotic\u2019 pangolin menu for tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Malaysian resort offering pangolin soup and meat for an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists is going to pay dearly after authorities swooped in on their illegal activities.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In an integrated crackdown dubbed \u201cOps Khazanah\u201d on Monday, Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) officials, together with the police, raided a resort in Semporna district after getting information that the operators were storing and serving the protected species.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cDuring the raid, a live pangolin as well as several pots containing cooked pangolin in herbal soup were found,\u201d SWD director Soffian Abu Bakar said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Three individuals were also arrested to facilitate investigations under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As a species listed as totally protected in Sabah, no one is allowed to possess, keep, sell or serve this animal as a meal in any way in the state, he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A resort in Malaysia\u2019s Sabah faces legal action for serving pangolin soup and meat. Photo: The Star\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7516a302-6952-434e-bb01-ee54d6e5871b_c6d46e74.jpg\" title=\"A resort in Malaysia\u2019s Sabah faces legal action for serving pangolin soup and meat. Photo: The Star\"\/>A resort in Malaysia\u2019s Sabah faces legal action for serving pangolin soup and meat. Photo: The Star<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Those found guilty can be fined between 50,000 ringgit (US$12,840) and 250,000 ringgit and jailed at least one to five years, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Malaysian resort offering pangolin soup and meat for an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists is going to pay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,76277,252938,190566,90364,252939,252940,128,252941,252942,34537,338],"class_list":["post-503157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-malaysian","tag-ops-khazanah","tag-pangolin","tag-sabah","tag-sabah-wildlife-conservation-enactment","tag-sabah-wildlife-department","tag-science","tag-semporna","tag-soffian-abu-bakar","tag-the-star","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}