14 DAY TRIAL // Authorities in Tanzania have been quite busy these past few days. By the looks of it, they have conducted several raids, and have ended up seizing nearly 800 elephant tusks that were just days away from being sold on the black market and turned into trinkets and whatnot.
Tree Hugger tells us that one of these raids targeted the home of three Chinese nationals in Dar es Salam Mikocheni area, all of whom were arrested after little over 700 elephant tusks were found hidden all over the place.
The same source details that, in an attempt to keep police officers from finding the elephant tusks and confiscating them, the three Chinese nationals had hidden the ivory among snail shells filled with garlic.
If their plan was to chase authorities away by making them wish they did not have a nose, it's safe to say that it was a really lousy one.
The police officers who conducted this raid say that, apart from the elephant tusks whose combined weight amounted to 1.8 tonnes (roughly 4,000 pounds), a converted minibus that apparently served to transport ivory was also found at the home of the three Chinese nationals.
The minibus had two different number plates, not because it was suffering from multiple personality disorder, but because the ivory traffickers wanted to make sure that there was complete separation between their legal daytime business and the illegal affairs they conducted on the side.
The Chinese nationals were not the owners of the house, and merely lived in it. The owners maintain that they had no idea what their three “house guests” were up to. An investigation is ongoing, so sooner or later authorities will figure out whether or not they are telling the truth.
Wildlife News reports that, not long after this raid, 89 other elephant tusks were confiscated from a car that was stopped at a road checkpoint close to Masasi township. This incident is also under investigation.
As reported on several occasions, both elephants and rhinos risks going extinct due to the fact that people are hunting them for their tusks and horns. Conservationists are working hard to protect them and urge that people help by not purchasing items made from ivory or rhino horn.