HANOI: The Vietnamese Customs Friday seized over two tonnes of elephant tusks, which were smuggled into the country from Mozambique.
The 2.2 tonnes of tusks, 835 individual pieces, were discovered on Thursday among sacks of beans, a customs official from northern Hai Phong port told AFP, asking not to be named.
The state-run Phap Luat Vietnam newspaper said the shipment was supposed to be delivered to a local company registered in the communist country. The report said the company, however, denied ordering the shipment, adding that the Mozambique origin container had docked at Hai Phong port in late November.
Tusks and other body parts of elephants are prized for decoration as talismans and for use in traditional medicine across parts of Asia despite a lack of peer reviewed scientific evidence that such items have any medicinal properties. Vietnam outlawed the ivory trade in 1992 but shops can still sell ivory dating from before the ban.
