BANGKOK
Just one week after Thai police seized the largest consignment of ivory ever found in the Kingdom another haul has been discovered - almost as large as the first.
Wildlife protection organization Freeland said in a statement Monday that 511 elephant tusks were found Saturday hidden in bags of tea leaves shipped from Kenya.
The 3-ton shipment was on its way via Singapore and Thailand to Laos - a major transit point for the illicit wildlife trade to China and Vietnam - and its value was estimated at $6 million, it added.
On April 20, Thai customs discovered a 4-ton shipment of elephant tusks hidden in bags labeled “beans” travelling from Congo to Laos.
Freeland, a Bangkok-based organization that is giving technical assistance to the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, called for regional authorities to focus on tracking down the traffickers.
“There is enough information from these latest two seizures to help investigators follow the trail and start to dismantle these syndicates,” said Freeland Director Steven Galster.
“We need to move beyond the seizure of wildlife body parts to the seizure of wildlife traffickers and their assets. Seizures represent the start of an investigation, not the successful completion of one.”
The latest bust came on the back of an intelligence report that detailed the passage of the containers.
According to the report, the ivory was shipped out of Kenya March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before arriving in Thailand.
The seizures come in the wake of a nationwide campaign by Thai authorities to have the owners of ivory items registered.
Nipon Chotiban, director-general of the department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation, has said that private individuals, companies, temples and foundations registered 180 tons of ivory in the kingdom during the three-month campaign launched Jan. 22.
Complete elephant tusks made up 80 percent of the total registered amount, he added.
Although the trade in elephant tusks and ivory from Africa is banned in the country, the trade in local ivory is not. Traffickers have been attempting to pass African Ivory off as local to ship it through Thailand.
Although China and Vietnam are the largest consumer bases for ivory, a sizable part ends up in Thailand where it is turned into jewelry and trinkets.
It is estimated that more than 20,000 African elephants are killed each year for their ivory.
