Three tons of elephant tusks amounting to $6 million worth of ivory were seized Saturday at a Thailand port, the second largest bust ever made in the country.
Thailand customs authorities received a tip the ivory was in a shipment from Kenya, and 511 elephant tusks were found
hidden in tea leaf sacks, The Associated Press reported.
The largest seizure every made by Thailand officials occurred just a week previously, when customs officials grabbed 4 tons of tusks smuggled from Congo, the AP said.
Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told the AP that Saturday's tusks were "more beautiful and complete than the previous lot."
African ivory smugglers frequently take a route through Thailand to get the ivory to customers in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. But faced with international sanctions, Thailand has been cracking down on the shipments.
"After these two consecutive big busts . . . the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue)," Somchai told the AP.
The destruction of numerous elephants to supply the ivory trade horrifies many people.
At least one company is taking an unusual approach to slowing or stopping the trafficking of rhino and elephant horns. Pembient, a bio-tech
startup in Washington, told the Puget Sound Business Journal they are making synthetic rhino horns in an effort to replace the illegal trade.
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