Kenya investigates smuggled ivory seized in Singapore
Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Kenyan authorities have launched a manhunt for directors of an export company in connection with the ivory and other animal parts worth about 6 million U.S. dollars that were seized in Singapore on Tuesday.
The owner of the truck that carried the ivory had been obtained and a port officer who handled the illegal shipment suspended, according to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
"So far, the truck owner has provided statements to the investigation team but the driver is still at large. The directors of the exporting company have absconded but are being sought," said KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini, adding that an investigation into the KRA's Mombasa port staff is underway.
Authorities in Singapore on Tuesday made one of the largest seizure of smuggled ivory in more than a decade.
Earlier, the KRA customs team, Njiraini said, issued an alert to the Singaporean authorities about the ivory.
The shipment consisted of 1,783 pieces of raw elephant tusks which weighed 3.7 tones, 22 canine teeth of African big cats, and some rhinoceros horns, and was to be smuggled into Vietnam, according to Singapore's media. Endi