Hong Kong authority on Friday seized 500 pieces of ivory tusks from Tanzania worth $1.4 million (Sh2.24 billion) —the second such major haul in a month, The Guardian has learnt.
According to Reuters News Agency, the 500
pieces weighing 1,300 kilogrammes were found hidden in a shipping
container that arrived in Hong Kong from Tanzania on Friday.
To put things into perspective, this means
that a total of 250 elephants were illegally killed in Tanzania in
order to export 500 pieces of tusks—casting doubt on the authority’s
capacity to deter poaching.
But, the seizure by the Hong Kong’s
Customs and Excise Department raises question about the situation at the
Dar es Salaam port where the tusks were shipped from early, this month.
It’s understood that at the Dar es Salaam
port, there’s all key government agencies responsible for inspecting,
monitoring and verifying every item exported outside the country. The
agencies include Tanzania Revenue Authority, Police, and Intelligence
among others.
Customs officials discovered the 1,330
kilograms (about 2,900 pounds) of illegal ivory Thursday in a container
from Tanzania that was marked as carrying sunflower seeds, authorities
said. The 569 tusks, worth 10.56 million Hong Kong dollars (about $1.4
million U.S.), were in the back of the container, buried under hundreds
of bags of the seeds.
The Hong Kong government said customs
officials are investigating the case and are still trying to find "the
smuggling syndicate members."
The container had been picked out for
inspection based on "risk assessment," authorities said. The seizure
follows the roughly $3.4 million worth in ivory found in two shipping
containers last month, one of the largest amounts ever seized in Hong
Kong.
Those containers arrived from Tanzania and
Kenya, according to Hong Kong customs officials. The agency seized
1,209 pieces of ivory tusks and 3 pounds of ivory ornaments from the two
containers, discovered over a period of two days. In that case, Hong
Kong customs officials were on alert after a tip-off from officials in
Guangdong, China.
Seven people, including one Hong Kong
resident, were arrested by Chinese officials in connection with the
case, authorities said at the time.
Hong Kong is viewed as a transit point for
the illegal ivory trade, feeding into increasing demands in China,
according to a Time article published last month. Elephants are being
killed in Africa at an alarming rate as international demand soars for
ivory. Much of the demand comes from increasingly affluent Asian
countries, particularly China and Thailand.
Before this year, the most recent major
bust in Hong Kong occurred in 2011, when officials seized a shipment of
ivory and rhinoceros horns valued at $2.2 million Hong Kong dollars.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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