BEIJING: Customs officials in China yesterday confiscated 57 premium elephant tusks which were illegally smuggled in from Africa in defiance of the country’s intended ban on ivory trading.
The huge haul, which the authorities estimate to be worth around 8.2 million yuan (£847,500), is said to be the largest confiscation of tusks this year, according to People’s Daily Online.
The tusks were declared as timber and hidden in a vast container filled with broken up pieces of wood, allegedly imported from Uganda.
Police in Xiamen, south-east China, where the tusks were seized have detained a suspect who is said to have purchased the ivory in June in Uganda.
The alleged suspect, named only as Huang, is reported to have attempted to smuggle his haul into south Guangdong Province for processing and sale at £200 per kilo on the black market.
In early November, Chinese authorities in eastern Jiangxi Province announced that they had seized over 600 kilos of ivory products at the end of a year-long operation, worth an estimated 22 million Yuan.
China has intensified efforts against illegal wildlife trafficking in recent times. Any person embroiled in the illegal ivory business can be sentenced to prison for anything from six months to life.
In late September, President Xi Jinping’s cordial state visit to Washington coincided with the two countries forming a momentous accord to help end the global ivory trade.
Cutting the supply of ivory to the Chinese market, as it is one of the world’s top consumers of ivory products, is recognised as an crucial step in reducing the poaching of Africa’s elephants.
Shortly after the agreement was finalised, a Chinese woman nicknamed the ‘Queen of Ivory’ was arrested in Tanzania in October and charged with smuggling at least 706 elephant tusks at a total price of over $2.5 million.
Yang Feng Glan, 66, is said to be the most notorious ivory trafficker arrested in East Africa in the past decade, having overseen a sophisticated supply chain for over 10 years.
