HONG Kong customs officers have made their second big seizure of illegal ivory in less than a month after confiscating more than a ton of the elephant tusks worth US$1.4 million, officials said yesterday.
Officers discovered 569 pieces of ivory tusks weighing 1,330 kilograms on Thursday in a container.
Officers searching a container from Tanzania discovered 45 bags of unprocessed and unpolished ivory tusks hidden among more than 400 bags of sunflower seeds, said Vincent Wong, a Hong Kong customs divisional commander.
The smugglers used an indirect route, shipping the ivory via Dubai, and transferred it from one ship to another, Wong said.
While the container's destination was listed as Hong Kong, officials believe the shipment was intended for somewhere else but would not say where.
The discovery comes just weeks after Hong Kong customs officers made their biggest-ever seizure of endangered species products, confiscating nearly 4 tons of African ivory worth US$3.4 million found in two separate containers.
Wong said the two cases did not appear to be related.
No arrests have been made.