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76kg rhino horns seized at Mozambican airport

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Mozambican police announced on Monday that they have seized more than 76 kg of rhino horns at Maputo International Airport.

Speaking at a news conference in Maputo, the spokesperson for the Maputo City Police Command, Orlando Mudumane, told reporters that the consignment, worth about 4.6 million U.S. dollars, was discovered in two suitcases, as they were being put on a flight to Kenya Friday.

"The owner of the suitcases and their illicit contents has not yet been identified", he said.

Since both white and black rhinos are believed to be nearly extinct in southern Mozambique, it is more likely that the rhinos, from which these horns were taken, were poached in the Kruger National Park in South Africa neighboring Mozambique, according to Mudumane.

Poaching is a serious headache for the southern African country, with the number of elephants fell over 50 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to an official research.

It also shows that rhinos, lions and leopards are facing serious threat of extinction in Mozambique.

Mozambicans are also accused of poaching in the Kruger National Park, with Mozambicans list as the most among foreign prisoners in South Africa committed poaching. Enditem