African ivory impounded at Suvarnabhumi Airport

Bangkok customs officers found a large stash of illegally poached elephant tusks at Bangkok’s international airport last Tuesday.

Officials acting on a tipoff, checked pallets marked as plywood furniture that had just arrived on a flight from Kenya.

The search produced more than 100 elephant tusks, some of which were one metre long, with a combined weight of 760kgs. There was also one extremely rare rhino horn. Customs officials estimated the market value of the haul at 38 million Baht.

Tuesday’s seizure was the third this year of African tusks. In April, more than one ton of elephant tusks was found packed in crates that had been labelled as containing computer printers.

In 1989, the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species prohibited cross border trade in ivory. Because the ban only applies to international trading, ivory dealers in Thailand are able to bypass it by saying the tusks are from domestic pachyderms. The only way to refute the claim is with a DNA test.

In the last few years demand for ivory has grown and poaching has got worse, especially in the central and eastern regions of Africa. Most of the tusks end up in Asia.

Thai ivory dealers pass on the tusks to carvers, who then create Buddha amulets or jewellery. These articles are then sold on to tourists or exported farther afield. Some of the tusks are shipped on to countries in the region, with China being one of the biggest markets.