14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of days back, police officials in Tanzania succeeded in confiscating 214 elephant tusks and 5 elephant bones hidden in several fertilizer bags.
Authorities explain that, taken together, these elephant body parts are worth roughly $1.32 million (€1.01 million) on the black market.
Moreover, it is quite likely that the individuals trafficking them had some very specific customers in mind, seeing how all of the tusks were handpicked to be quite big and in good shape.
Wildlife News reports that, having been caught in the act, one of the people involved in these illegal activities tried to escape the legal consequences of his actions by bribing the police officers who arrested him.
Unfortunately for him, Tanzanian officers declined his offer to receive about $9,500 (€7,322) in return for turning a blind eye to this man's crimes against biodiversity and the natural world.
A total of three elephant tusks traders now find themselves in police custody, and the man who was planning on driving the truck carrying these animal parts to Kenya also got arrested for having agreed to help the wildlife traffickers.
According to the same source, Police Commander Suleiman Kova made a case of how, “The mission was to transport the government trophies in a coffin covered by the national flag in order to cheat police while on the way.”
Furthermore, “We are investigating the matter jointly with the Wildlife Department, which is responsible for anti-poaching operations to establish the criminal syndicate in the country, far East and Kenya.”
Simple math lets us know that, in order for these traffickers to have as many as 214 elephant tusks in their possession, at least 107 elephants had to be brutally killed by poachers.
The news of this breakthrough in the ongoing battle against poaching comes shortly after Hong Kong authorities made it public news that they confiscated about 1,200 elephant tusks from several illegal traders.