A prolific, convicted animal smuggler, says Australians would be horrified if they knew how many animals are dying in black market trade while being smuggled to cashed-up collectors in Europe and Asia.

Over the last two years, 25-year-old Niall Cooke has been convicted of more than forty charges, including possessing and transporting protected animals such as crocodiles, lizards and snakes.

"The way the animals are smuggled out of the country is disgusting, and it's not safe for the animals," he told 7.30.

"Half of the time the animals are not surviving."

Some of the animals Cooke and his associates collected from bushland in northern WA died while squeezed into boxes that were intercepted at post offices.

Organised crime involvement 'a disturbing development'

Convicted animal smuggler Niall Cooke. ( ABC News: Erin Parke )

Niall Cooke says he has now turned his life around, and wants Australians to know just how organised and lucrative the black market for Australian wildlife is, relative to the penalties for getting caught.

"What people need to realise is there's so much money to be made with this, probably even more than running guns or drugs," he said.

"I look back now and I can see that I shouldn't have done it that way — I regret it.

"I got caught, I'm paying the price, I'm paying off the fines, and there's a whole new chapter in life now."

Australian Border Force WA boss Rod O'Donnell says more and more Australian reptiles are being smuggled overseas, in increasingly sophisticated networks.

"One of the more disturbing elements we're seeing is organised crime starting to get involved because there's a profit motive now," he told 7.30.

"We're seeing growth in people collecting on behalf of a more organised criminal entity to then sell and make profits overseas, and that's a disturbing development."

'Herpetologists would pay anything for unique wildlife'

A person takes a lizard which was being smuggled out of a sock. ( Supplied: WA Dept. of Biodiversity, Conservations and Attractions )

Wildlife trafficking is worth an estimated $24 billion globally, with the greatest demand being for souvenirs of African animals like elephants and rhinoceroses.

But there is evidence the market for Australian reptiles is more lucrative than ever before, with a single animal fetching tens of thousands of dollars in Asia, Europe and the United States.

In the last month alone, authorities in WA intercepted 269 animals, including the biggest smuggling intercept in the state's history, which resulted in 220 reptiles and mammals being seized from a car stopped for speeding near Eucla.

Niall Cooke says social media sites are fuelling the trade in rare and sought-after species.

"They're using pretty much all internet forms, but now mainly Instagram and Facebook," he said.

"You go on there and you know the people who are selling Australia wildlife, and you go onto their page and you just see all types of illegal animals advertised.

"The biggest price I've heard was for lizards called lace monitors, that are found on the east coast of Australia.

"They can fetch up to $80-100,000 a pair when they get to USA and Germany."

"You just have these really keen reptile enthusiasts, herpetologists who would pay anything for such unique wildlife."

'It's like a candy store' for smugglers

A Wildlife officer holds a lizard which was being smuggled out of the country. ( Supplied: WA Parks and Wildlife Service )

Mr Cooke says he never sold reptiles to overseas buyers or attempted to smuggle them out of Australia himself.

He described himself as having operated at "the bottom of the pyramid", with reptile dealers in New South Wales and Victoria issuing him with a shopping list of obscure Western Australia reptiles that were fetching big bucks overseas.

"The people higher up, over east, they pay for the trips, the car hire and so on," he said.

"Then the people collecting just drive around like normal people, but go off the bush tracks and find all these lizards and put them in bags and drive off.

"It's quite easy to blend in.

"They drive them back east, or mail them back east, and either the person there, or one above them, organises the sending overseas.

"Sometimes they have a list of animals they've been asked to look for, those high value animals that will get a return.

"But some people they just come over here and pretend like it's a candy story and they just take and take and take, and take whatever animals they can find."

Illegal trade 'a cruel practice'

Parks and Wildlife officer Matt Swan with a black-headed python. ( ABC News: Marcus Alborn )

As a wildlife officer with the WA Parks and Wildlife Service, Matt Swan is on the frontline of efforts to stamp out the trade.

He doesn't mince words about the nature of the trade.

"The illegal trade in reptiles is really a cruel practice," he told 7.30.

"People go out, they smash the habitat to pieces, they take an animal from the wild, they then put the animal through horrendous conditions to try and get it to the east coast or get it overseas, where it's sold for an exorbitant amount of money for their own gain."

Over the years he's seen lizards stuffed in socks so thick they can't breathe, animals shoved into teddy bears and cut-out books, and reptiles crushed and dehydrated in tightly-packed packages that were battered during postal deliveries.

"As much as the poacher or whoever it is claims that they love reptiles and they care for reptiles, the fact is they go out and put this animal in horrendous conditions in order to make money," he said.

"This type of practice should not be tolerated."

Debate over opening up international trade

Lizards packed in socks for smuggling inside a hollowed-out book. ( Supplied: WA Dept. of Biodiversity, Conservations and Attractions )

Some in the herpetology world believe that export laws should be relaxed to allow common species like shingleback lizards to be sold overseas.

It's something Niall Cooke supports, arguing that deregulation would reduce demand and remove the motivation for dealers to package and post reptiles in cruel conditions.

"If they opened up some international trade it would pretty much stop this smuggling because they could legally pay for a license to bring some animals from Australia," he said.

"It would reduce smuggling to the point where animals won't be dying in the post, they won't be stuffed into these small tight containers and shipped overseas where they can all end up dead."

WA Environment Minister Stephen Dawson has been quick to shut down the idea.

"This man is asking me to change the legislation, so he can make some money and doesn't get caught doing the wrong thing?" he said.

"I'm happy to have a conversation with anybody who's involved in looking after these animals … but somebody who continued to break the law and continues to put these animals at risk, they shouldn't be involved in this industry in the first place.

"And I'm certainly not going to help this man."

His focus is the roll-out of new wildlife laws, that will massively increase the penalties for poaching and smuggling animals.

Niall Cooke has now turned his hand to showing tourists the animals he used to capture. ( Supplied: Niall Cooke Facebook )

"The penalties will increase from about $10,000 up to about $500,000 for an individual who does this," Mr Dawson said.

"And it will increase to up to $2.5 million for a body corporate who gets caught trying to poach or send one of these animals overseas.

"So they're substantial increases in penalties, so hopefully that will stop people from being foolish and putting these animals at risk."

The Federal Government's also dismissed deregulation.

Niall Cooke now works as a tour guide in the Kimberley region of WA's north, showing tourists the wildlife he once smuggled.