Zypern – 04. 12. 2025

Trappers under pressure: Thousands of birds, nets and limesticks seized by Police – 55 suspects convicted, 239,770€ in fines issued

Today the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has released new data and footage documenting its efforts to push back illegal bird poaching in Cyprus this autumn.

According to the NGO between two and four field teams were deployed each day in the period between 10 September to 25 November. The teams were made up of experienced fieldworkers and conservationists from across Europe. Their main task was to report active trapping sites and help the authorities to identify the operators and release all protected birds found still alive in the traps.

Together with police officers and wardens from the Game & Fauna Service, the conservationists conducted a total of 75 joint operations which resulted in the successful conviction of 55 men - 35 bird trappers and 20 hunters who were caught violating hunting regulations.

During the operations 1,547 limesticks, 137 mist-nets and 89 electronic bird callers were seized or destroyed. CABS members also helped the authorities to successfully release 1,286 live birds entangled in nets or glued to limesticks. Among the rescued birds were hundreds of protected blackcaps – the primary target of local trappers – as well as birds from 22 other protected species of conservation concern such as Savi’s warbler, Thrush nightingale, Scops owls and Wryneck.

The combined sum of all fines issued by law enforcement against suspects reported by CABS this autumn amounts to 239,770€.

The largest operations included raids against the infamous ‘Akas’ and ‘Trikkis’ poacher gangs. The searches were initiated after CABS, together with British broadcasters Chris Packham and Meghan McCubbin, exposed the industrial-scale illegal bird trapping in a secluded fenced valley near the village of Maroni. The ‘Operation Dead Air’ campaign included daily livestreams from the Akas trapping site where masked men were filmed emptying nets and threatening journalists and activists in September. After Packham and McCubbin accused local police of “doing nothing” against the Maroni poachers, the authorities subsequently initiated criminal proceedings and executed several search warrants. The raids resulted in what CABS labelled as some of the largest seizures of dead protected birds in recent years in Cyprus and combined fines amounting to 157, 000 euros.

CABS have praised the Police and the Game Wardens for their cooperation and proactive response times after reports were received. “We are also very pleased to finally see the Cyprus Police take firm action against criminals who have been ´untouchable´ for so many years”, CABS president Karl-Heinz Kreutzer said. He added that this season a strong message has been delivered to all poachers. “No one is above the law and those who are caught must face the consequences of their actions”. 

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Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)
Website: www.komitee.de/en
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CABSREPORTS
Instagram / X Follow: @CABS_REPORTS