Vietnam nabs 2,4 tons of smuggled elephant tusks

HANOI, Vietnam – State-controlled media say authorities in Vietnam have seized 2,4 tons of elephant tusks illegally imported from southern Africa.

The Laborer newspaper says customs officials in Ho Chi Minh City discovered the tusks on Monday in a container shipped from Mozambique which had been declared cowhide.
The newspaper said yester that the tusks were worth an estimated US$4,9 million on the black market.
Customs officials were not immediately available for comment.
In 2009, authorities in the northern port city of Hai Phong confiscated nearly seven tons of elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania in the country’s biggest such seizure.
The tusks were to be used for jewellery and home decorations.
Vietnam bans the hunting of the country’s dwindling elephant population, which poachers value highly for their tusks. – Nampa-AP

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