HK nabs 1.5 m in ivory in 3rd big bust since july
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_HONG_KONG_IVORY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-03-05-56-51HONG KONG (AP) -- Hong Kong customs agents have seized nearly a ton of illegal ivory worth about $1.5 million, officials said Thursday, in the city's third big bust of endangered species products in three months.
Customs officials said they found a total of 189 elephant tusks weighing 769 kilograms (1,695 pounds) at the southern Chinese city's busy port in anti-smuggling operations carried out in late September.
The ivory was wrapped in linen and nylon bags and hidden in large bags of soybeans in containers on three separate ships, said Vincent Wong, head of Ports and Maritime Command.
The shipments came from Cote d'Ivoire and transited through Malaysia. Officials said the likely final destination was mainland China.
= new reply since forum marked as read
... that Hong Kong Customs will have marked it down as being destroyed immediately ...
no doubt being transported to the mainland to ensure "it gets done properly" ...
If they wanted to shut down the trade, they would go after the recipients. They don't.
> In August, Hong Kong officials seized illegal ivory, rhino horns and leopard skins
> worth $5.3 million in a shipment that came from Nigeria. In late July, they found
> two tons of tusks worth $2.25 million in a container from Togo. In January, a
> shipment of ivory worth $1.4 million from Kenya was confiscated.
The worrying thing about these reports - other than the sheer inhumanity that such
numbers represent - is that HK is the ONLY port in China that is even making an effort.
The mainland consumers are invulnerable and will continue to be fed their animal parts
until the species are extinct. The rate will only get worse as the old guard in HK Customs
is gradually replaced by "more compliant" newcomers ...
