Four tons of ivory seized by officials
Sunday 21 October 2012
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EmailHong Kong customs officers said on Saturday that they had confiscated nearly four tons of ivory worth £2 million in their biggest-ever seizure of endangered species items.
Tipped off by officials in neighbouring Guangdong province, officers found ivory tusks and ornaments in two containers shipped from Tanzania and Kenya.
They found nearly 1,000 pieces of ivory weighing more than 4,000 pounds, as well as three pounds of ivory ornaments in a container from Tanzania and 237 pieces of ivory in a shipment from Kenya.
Wildlife activists say China's growing presence in Africa has caused an unprecedented surge in poaching elephants for their tusks, most of which are believed to be smuggled to China and Thailand to make ivory ornaments.
Anyone caught in Hong Kong trading in products made from endangered species faces two years in prison and a £400,000 fine.
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