Another half ton of ivory hidden in a log

On November 1, the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department announced that it had just discovered a shipment of nearly 500 kg of suspected African elephant tusks cleverly hidden in logs transported through Cat Lai port.

Accordingly, on the afternoon of November 1, the functional forces including: Customs Control Team - Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department; Saigon Port Customs Branch, Region 1; Anti-Smuggling Crime Police Department (C74) - Ministry of Public Security inspected 2 wood containers transported from Africa to Binh Duong. When passing through Cat Lai port, the Customs Control Team's detectives discovered something suspicious so they kept them for inspection.

All the ivory seized

Through physical inspection of the first container, authorities discovered hundreds of ivory pieces were placed in hollow logs measuring 30-40cm wide and more than 2m long, packed tightly with sawdust and nailed like normal solid logs.

The second wooden container was inspected and no ivory was found.

It is estimated that the amount of ivory in the container is about 500 kg, with a market price of about 20 billion VND.

Ivory logs are mixed in with regular logs and are very difficult to detect.

Logs after removing ivory

It is known that this batch of wood was transported from Africa and the destination was Binh Duong port, Tam Phuc Company Limited headquartered in Binh Phuoc province received the goods.

Previously on October 6, 21 and 26, the joint forces also consecutively discovered 3 cases of ivory smuggling with similar methods, the evidence in these 3 arrests amounted to more than 3.5 tons of ivory.

According to Dan Tri