Kin Cheung/Associated Press
The smuggled ivory shipment confiscated by custom officials in Hong Kong was valued at around $1.4 million.
HONG KONG — Customs officials in Hong Kong announced on Friday their third large seizure of smuggled ivory in less than three months, saying they had intercepted 779 elephant tusks weighing 2,900 pounds in a container originating from Kenya.
The shipment was valued at around $1.4 million.
In October, 1,209 tusks weighing 3.8 tons and worth about $3.5 million were seized from two containers shipped from Tanzania and Kenya. The following month, 1.6 tons were discovered in a container originating from Tanzania.
Large seizures also have been made in other countries recently, notably in Port Klang, Malaysia, last month.
Demand from an increasingly affluent Asia and improved international trade and transport links have caused the trade in ivory and other wildlife products to soar in recent years, pushing many species to the brink. Meanwhile, in many countries enforcement and penalties remain weak and constitute little deterrent to smugglers and poachers, conservationists say.
A total of about 10 tons of ivory was seized by customs officials around the world in 2007, according to Traffic, an organization that monitors wildlife trade. By 2011, that figure had jumped to nearly 40 tons — a record. Much of that ivory came from large hauls — weighing 1,600 pounds or more — indicating the rising involvement of organized criminal gangs, Traffic said.
Official records for 2012 are not yet complete, but the quantity of raw ivory already reported seized in the past year totals nearly 27.5 tons, according to Traffic.
“2011 still reigns supreme as the ‘annus horribilis’, but last December’s Malaysia seizure pushes 2012 into the top four years of highest ivory seizures by weight, indicating the illegal ivory trade is still running rampant,” Tom Milliken, Traffic’s elephant expert, wrote in an e-mail.
No arrests have been made in connection with Friday’s seizure in Hong Kong. Customs officials said Friday that a fictitious address in Hong Kong had been listed at the shipment’s destination, and that their investigations were continuing.
There were no indications that Hong Kong was becoming a more important transshipment point for ivory smuggling, they said, adding that the three recent hauls were “isolated” events.
The smugglers, said Vincent Wong, a senior official in the Hong Kong customs department, were adopting new approaches all the time, diversifying routes and using different concealment measures.
Friday’s batch of ivory contained some whole tusks, but also many that had been cut into two or three pieces, allowing them to fit into five wooden crates transported among a shipment declared as containing “architectural stones.”
Seizures of Illegal Ivory Are Rising in Hong Kong
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Seizures of Illegal Ivory Are Rising in Hong Kong
