Customs officials in Thailand have seized 3 tonnes of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country’s history.
The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million (£3.9m) were bound for Laos, but were seized upon arrival at a major port in Chonburi province on Saturday April 25.
The discovery, which would be worth millions of dollars on the black market, was destined for Laos where the illegal ivory trade flourishes. Scores of whole tusks – some nearly two metres long – were among the pieces seized.
Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse said the ivory was shipped out of Kenya on March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before coming to Thailand.
Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn’t show progress in combating the problem.
“After these two consecutive big busts … the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue),” Somchai said.
Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens’ huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa’s elephants.
