Police hand over confiscated ivory and deer horns for destruction
Thousands of ivory tusks and other contraband seized in Dubai will be destroyed.
Police handed over the 2,272 items, which include rhinoceros and deer horns and logs of illegal sandalwood, to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment yesterday.
The illegal items were intercepted at Dubai’s airports in the past few months, said Brig Gen Mohammed Al Mazrouei, acting director general of Dubai airport security.
Endangered live animals were also confiscated. The contraband was carried by transit passengers on their way to East Asian markets from African and European countries, Brig Gen Al Mazrouei said.
Some of the 1,346 kilograms of contraband had been painted by smugglers in an unsuccessful attempt to fool customs officers.
Despite UAE authorities cracking down on illegal trafficking as early as 1990, ivory continues to be sold on the black market – often travelling through the Emirates to other counties.
Nearly 2,750 tusks hacked from African elephants were found in China on Tuesday in the country’s largest discovery of illegally imported ivory in recent years, The Times reported.
The country introduced a ban on all trade in ivory products last year, but demand for it, and rhino horn, is still high.
A report by the US Agency for International Development last year revealed the UAE to be a popular route for traffickers. It showed the UAE had the third-highest number of exotic animal smuggling cases in the world between 2009 and 2017.
These included seizures of animals and animal products at Dubai airports, or at hauls farther down the line, mainly in Asia.
Some of those overseas hauls were the result of international efforts involving Dubai Customs and Police.
Under UAE law, people caught smuggling endangered animals or animal parts face jail sentences and fines.