Three shipping containers found in Sri Lanka stuffed with 359 elephant tusks came from Kenya, the Kenya Wildlife Service reported Thursday.
Trading in tusks is illegal, and Sri Lanka seized the cargo on Tuesday after it was detected by scans.
The containers -- which had been declared as only containing plastic waste and teak logs -- were destined for Dubai, India and Guatemala.
A fourth container was detained before it left the country, kenya
Poaching for elephant ivory and rhino horns has risen dramatically across Africa due to demand from Asia, where ivory is used for ornaments and horns used in traditional medicine.Once in Asia, the documentation for illegal shipments is often changed to make it look like a local re-export, helping to hide its true origin, TRAFFIC stated."That’s an indication of the level of sophistication enforcement officers are up against in trying to outwit the criminal masterminds behind this insidious trade," said Milliken. "As most large-scale ivory seizures fail to result in any arrests, I fear the criminals are winning."
0 comments:
Post a Comment