Ivory haul of 434 slain elephants biggest in Moz history

MAPUTO: The amount of ivory seized in Maputo port last Thursday, before it could be exported illicitly to Asia, has turned out to be much larger than initially believed.

Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) press officer Fernando Tinga said the AT had counted 867 tusks weighing over 3.5 tons.

This means the ivory comes from at least 434 poached elephants. It is not yet known where or when the elephants were killed, but the accumulation of such a huge hoard of ivory must have taken a considerable time and may have spanned several southern African countries.

Tinga confirmed that this is by far the largest seizure of ivory in Mozambican history.

The Mozambican authorities have now made their first arrests in the case.

Police recently detained the driver of a container filled with ivory as well as a customs broker who handled the container. Also seized were five other containers from the same company, Chinese-owned Newlite, which has premises in Beluluane, on the outskirts of Maputo.

Other port drivers demonstrated inside the port premises against the detention of their colleague, claiming he could not possibly have known what was inside the container.

The ivory was discovered during what the AT described as a “routine inspection” by electronic scanner of the containers. The export documents said they contained polypropylene resin, which is used to make a wide range of plastic products. It was supposedly being exported to Cambodia.

But inspection of the containers revealed no resin. Instead, there were large quantities of used plastic items, apparently being sent for recycling in Asia,

In one of the six containers, the ivory was found, hidden among the used plastic items.

All export of ivory, raw or worked, is banned under Mozambican legislation.

The independent television station STV investigated the Newlite company. It found the premises, in an otherwise deserted part of Beluluane, surrounded by a high wall topped with barbed wire, with the gates firmly locked. There was no one on the premises.