An explosive new investigation has uncovered a thriving underground trade in illegal bushmeat across London, with vendors importing exotic animals from Africa—including monkey, alligator, porcupine, and lizard—and selling them to unsuspecting customers as everyday beef, chicken, and lamb.
Authorities warn the meat poses a “serious health risk,” with potential contamination from deadly diseases including Ebola, anthrax, and TB.
Yet officials are turning a blind eye, telling citizen it’s “racist” to complain about the illegal bushmeat, and ordering social media to remove posts featuring investigations into the criminal gangs operating with impunity.
In a series of coordinated raids over the past year, the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) and the Metropolitan Police have seized staggering quantities of illegal wild animal meat from properties across Southeast London. The largest haul came in December 2025, when officers raided a site in Deptford and seized 38kg of frozen bushmeat including pangolins, cane rats, and porcupines. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Most recently, in a joint operation with the Peckham Rye Safer Neighbourhood Team, officers seized approximately 11kg of bushmeat including cane rat and antelope from a property in Southeast London. A 51-year-old male was arrested.
But the seizures represent only a fraction of the problem. According to government data, nearly 100 tons of illegal meat was confiscated at Dover last year alone—a rise of more than 75 per cent on 2023.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’
This isn’t just about a few bad apples. Investigative reporting has revealed that the trade is brazenly advertised on social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, with smugglers offering “doorstep delivery” to London addresses.
One TikTok profile, LocalFoodsDiary based in Lagos, Nigeria, boasted about how easy it was to get bushmeat into the UK, showing a package with a London postcode and the caption: “Bushmeat package arrived UK”.
The account offered a “United Kingdom Combo deal” including one antelope or grasscutter, one full goat meat, and 50 pieces of dried snails for £397 . Another profile called kjsaraha offered UK “doorstep delivery” within 11 days and “express” shipping for items including dried porcupine and alligator.
Dr Mark Ofua, a Nigeria-based vet and researcher for the Wild Africa Fund, told investigators the trade is widespread: “We see that meat as too tender for our liking. It tastes kind of off”.
A trader familiar with the Ridley Road market in Dalston—long identified as a hub for the illicit trade—admitted to investigators: “I often get a craving for it. You used to get it everywhere here, but it’s gone underground now”. They added: “You can place orders at these African markets and they will deliver to your home”.
HEALTH TIME-BOMB
The meat, which is completely unregulated, evades all UK safety and hygiene checks. Experts warn it could be carrying serious infectious diseases including foot-and-mouth, anthrax, tuberculosis, cholera, and the deadly Ebola virus.
Bushmeat—a catch-all term covering wild mammals, reptiles, and birds hunted in tropical regions—has been linked to multiple previous outbreaks of Ebola, with five prior outbreaks connected to handling the meat of gorillas, chimps, and duikers (a type of antelope).
Dr Yunes Teinaz, a former environmental health official who has long warned about the trade, told investigators: “This meat is sold everywhere. It’s smuggled in vast quantities. It’s supplied all around Britain. It poses a potentially huge risk to public health, yet we are doing nothing to tackle it”.
ENDANGERED SPECIES TRAFFICKING
Beyond the public health risks, the trade is fuelling the slaughter of critically endangered species. Pangolins—the only mammals with scales covering their bodies from head to tail—are protected under international law, with all commercial trade prohibited. Yet they were among the species seized in the Deptford raid.
According to the Zoological Society of London, one million pangolins are thought to have been poached in a single decade to satisfy demand, making them perhaps the world’s most-poached animal.
OFFICIAL RESPONSE
David Toms-Sheridan, Head of Investigations (South of England and Wales) at the NFCU, confirmed the scale of the operation: “The NFCU has been working closely with the Metropolitan Police Service and other Subject Matter Experts to identify those suspected of being involved in this criminality. This operation forms part of the NFCU’s ongoing work to disrupt the illegal meat trade and prevent unsafe products from reaching the public”.
He added: “The FSA advises consumers not to buy or eat illegally imported meat, including bushmeat, as it may pose serious health risks. If you have concerns about products being sold, contact your local authority. We remain vigilant to the threat of illegal meat entering the food chain and will continue to take action to protect the public.”