Vietnamese customs authorities seized seven tons of ivory illegally shipped from Angola on Monday in what is believed to be the largest seizure of wildlife products in Vietnam in years, state media reported.
The seizure took place after customs officers and local police found the elephant tusks in a 20-foot shipping container shipped en route to Vietnam via Singapore at the Nam Hai Dinh Vu port in Haiphong, a city in Northeast Vietnam, according to a state report. run Bao Chin Phu newspaper.
The containers were declared to be carrying peanuts.
Vietnam is a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, which prohibits international trade in ivory.
However, wildlife trafficking remains rampant with ivory, pangolin scales, rhino horns and tiger parts being smuggled in for amulets, decorations and traditional medicine throughout the region and into China.
Most of the ivory smuggled into Southeast Asia ends up in the hands of Chinese customers due to lax law enforcement, though Beijing banned the sale of elephant ivory in late 2017.
Authorities at the same port seized 7.5 tons of elephant and pangolin ivory scales hidden in steel barrels in a shipping container in June 2019, according to Vietnamese media. The shipment was headed to a logistics company in Haiphong, but no one claimed it.
Translated by An Nguyen for Vietnamese FRG. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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