£1.3million of ivory seized in Kenya

Disguised as diplomatic baggage
May 2011: Illegal ivory worth more than £1.3million and destined for West Africa was seized at Kenya's biggest airport earlier this month.

DESTROYED: Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service Julius Kipng'etich with Paula Kahumbu, a Friend of Nairobi National Park, examine one of the elephant tusks at the ivory burning site in Nairobi National Park

The 115 pieces of elephant ivory weighing 1,304kg packed in 14 metal boxes had been disguised as diplomatic baggage, marked for embassies that were found to be non-existent.

Thanks to a tip-off from the public, the ivory were detected and seized by a joint security team comprising the Kenya Airports Police Unit, the Kenya Revenue Authority (Customs Department), and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

Out of the 14 boxes, which were destined for Nigeria, three were purported to be from the Embassy of Papua New Guinea while 11 were falsely claimed to be from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Brunei.

Follows massive £2million haul in March
This incident follows closely a recent seizure of £2million worth of ivory at Bangkok seaport at the end of March. More than 2,000kg of ivory was intercepted by Thai Customs officials which had been shipped through the Mombasa seaport.

The 247 tusks, some up to two metres long, were found during an X-ray scan of a shipping container labeled as frozen mackerel among 100 boxes in a boat at Bangkok Port on the Chao Phraya river. A joint team of law enforcement agencies is conducting further investigations to establish the true origin of the consignments and the suspects behind them. This includes DNA testing of the ivory to determine its origin.

Director Julius Kipngetich said then they intended to introduce sniffer dogs at the Mombasa port as part of measures to curb the illegal shipping of the ivory. International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, but seizures have risen dramatically in the past five years.

According to KWS records, the number of illegally killed elephants in 2010 was 187, while as of April it is 80 elephants.