31 smuggled elephant tusks seized at Suvarnabhumi
Thai authorities have seized 31 elephant tusks, weighing about 148 kilograms and worth about Bt15 million, from a flight from Lagos, Nigeria.
Chaiyuth Kamkun, deputy Customs department director-general, said that the confiscation was the results of close monitoring of tusk smuggling rings that have used Thailand as a transit point.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Chaiyuth said that analysing intelligence information revealed that the trafficking rings normally smuggled the tusks from African countries and disguised the ivory as general goods.
The tusks displayed at the press conference were allegedly brought into Thailand by Ethiopian Airlines flight ET618 from Lagos in Nigeria to Bangkok’s Survarnabhumi airport.
The authorities, including the airport department and police, became suspicious of the items contained in large boxes. Scanning the boxes, they found the tusks.
No one turned up to claim the tusks, so they were confiscated.
