The Digital Butcher: How a Myanmar Wildlife Trafficker Operated in Plain Sight for Six Years

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and mentions of animal harm that some readers may find distressing.

For more than half a decade, a Myanmar-based individual has operated a brazen, high-volume wildlife trafficking empire, utilizing the world’s largest social media platforms to market the butchered remains of some of the planet’s most endangered species. Operating under the guise of a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, the dealer—identified by investigators as U May Kyin Phu, known online as “MB”—has used Facebook, TikTok, and WeChat to sell tiger bones, rhino horn, elephant skin, and leopard parts to buyers across China, Thailand, and Myanmar.

A sweeping investigation by Bellingcat has mapped the scale of this illicit trade, tracing over US$21,000 in transactions through an analysis of hundreds of advertisements, customer conversations, and shipping receipts. The investigation not only exposed the mechanics of this cross-border criminal enterprise but also successfully geolocated the dealer’s home base in Lashio, Myanmar, and unmasked the sophisticated digital evasion tactics used to bypass platform moderation.

The Face of the Trade: A Six-Year Chronology

The digital footprint left by MB is extensive, spanning six years of continuous activity. By documenting his own sales, MB inadvertently created a roadmap for investigators.

2019–2021: Building the Network

Starting as early as 2019, MB began utilizing social media to cultivate a customer base. Using multiple Facebook profiles, he transitioned from vague posts to explicit advertisements for protected animal parts. His strategy relied on "proof of life" and "proof of death" imagery. In one instance, he posted footage of a live tiger in a cage, accompanied by a caption taunting the animal: “What the hell are you huffing about? Just wait, your turn is coming.” Days later, he would post graphic videos of the same animals being butchered for their skins, bones, and fangs.

2022: The Peak of Operations

By late 2022, the operation was in full swing. On December 21, 2022, an account linked to MB shared a reel of an unconscious tiger cub with the caption “Time for winemaking,” accompanied by laughing emojis. Four days later, he shared footage of an adult tiger on an orange plastic sheet as a man approached with a knife. These posts were not merely for shock value; they were marketing tools designed to convince suspicious buyers of the “authenticity” of his products—a common anxiety in the illicit wildlife trade, where buffalo horn is frequently passed off as rhino horn and cattle parts are sold as tiger derivatives.

2023–2026: Expansion and Evasion

As regulatory scrutiny increased, MB’s tactics evolved. He began utilizing sophisticated coded language to avoid automated content moderation. He referred to elephant skin as an “eraser” (a Mandarin homophone) and used specific emojis to denote different species, such as deer, bears, and rhinos. He also moved the majority of his logistics to private messaging apps like WeChat and Viber, while using his Facebook and TikTok pages as a public-facing storefront.

Supporting Data: Mapping the Illegal Flow

The investigation’s analysis of over 500 screenshots of customer interactions provided a rare window into the financial and logistical backbone of the wildlife black market.

Financial Scope

While the US$21,000 identified by Bellingcat likely represents only a fraction of his total income, the figures are staggering when contextualized against the local economy. With the United Nations estimating Myanmar’s annual per capita income at roughly $300–$430 in 2023, the thousands of dollars generated by single sales—such as a $3,494 sale of two tiger femurs to a buyer in Hunan, China—reveal a lucrative, highly profitable criminal enterprise.

Logistical Infrastructure

MB’s supply chain was surprisingly organized. He utilized a network of accounts—including seven WeChat Pay profiles, two Alipay accounts, and six third-party bank accounts—often claiming these belonged to “friends or family” to obfuscate the flow of funds. Deliveries were just as structured:

• Domestic (Myanmar): Shipments were primarily small quantities of powder or medicine sent to shared pickup points.
• International (China/Thailand): High-value shipments, including whole tiger bones or large quantities of elephant skin, were frequently dispatched via logistics providers like Deppon.

The investigation identified 119 deliveries within Myanmar, 27 to mainland China, and nine to Thailand, proving that despite border restrictions, the illicit trade remains fluid and persistent.

Official Responses and Platform Accountability

The publication of these findings triggered immediate, albeit overdue, action from both technology companies and government bodies.

Tech Platform Interventions

Following contact from Bellingcat, Meta removed 10 Facebook accounts linked to MB. WeChat suspended three accounts and revoked their payment functions. TikTok and YouTube also took down one account each. When pressed on why such blatant criminal activity was allowed to persist for six years, a spokesperson for Meta stated: “Bad actors constantly evolve their tactics to avoid enforcement, which is why we partner with groups and invest in tools and technology to detect and remove violating content.”

Regulatory and Governmental Action

The findings have been shared with authorities in both Myanmar and Thailand. The Thai Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division confirmed that they have historically monitored packages containing “traditional medicine” that were, in fact, illicit wildlife products. They have pledged to further investigate the specific links uncovered in this report. The Myanmar embassy in London acknowledged receipt of the findings and confirmed it would consult relevant authorities within the country.

The Wider Implications: A Crisis of Biodiversity

The activities of “MB” are not an isolated phenomenon; they represent a systemic failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable species.

The Myth of TCM

The trade is fueled by a dangerous intersection of tradition and pseudoscience. MB’s products were marketed as “kidney-replenishing” or “prostate” medicines, often containing a cocktail of pulverized seahorse, gecko, dog, and critically endangered leopard or bear parts. The belief that consuming the organ of an animal will nourish the corresponding organ in a human remains a primary driver for the illegal harvest of species that are already on the brink of extinction.

Legal and Ethical Failures

The Indochinese leopard, of which fewer than 800 remain in the wild, is being systematically dismantled to satisfy this market. Similarly, Myanmar’s wild tiger population, estimated at just 22 individuals in 2019, is under constant pressure from both illegal poaching and the "tiger farm" industry, which, while legally ambiguous, remains a major contributor to the decline of the species.

All three countries involved—China, Myanmar, and Thailand—are signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Under this treaty, the international trade of tiger, rhino, and elephant derivatives is strictly prohibited. Yet, as this investigation shows, the gap between international law and on-the-ground enforcement is wide enough for traffickers to operate a full-scale business on the open web.

Conclusion

The case of “MB” serves as a chilling indictment of the modern digital landscape. In an era where artificial intelligence and advanced moderation tools are supposedly at their peak, a single trafficker was able to exploit the system for years, openly advertising the destruction of endangered species.

While the removal of his accounts is a temporary victory for conservation, the underlying demand—and the infrastructure that supports it—remains intact. Until technology platforms take more aggressive, proactive measures to address the coded language and payment gateways used by these syndicates, and until international law enforcement treats wildlife trafficking with the same severity as other forms of transnational organized crime, the "digital butcher" will likely be replaced by another, equally brazen successor. The cost of this negligence, however, is not measured in dollars, but in the permanent loss of the world’s most iconic and irreplaceable species.