NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. authorities arrested six people Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling African elephant ivory worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, law enforcement officials said.


Imports of African elephant ivory have been banned in the United States since 1976.

1 of 2 The defendants arranged to have ivory from Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Uganda shipped into the United States disguised as wooden snakes, guitars and statues, authorities said.

"The defendants plundered precious natural resources for personal profit," U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell and other officials said in a statement. "Their illegal trade threatens the continued existence of an endangered species and will not be tolerated."

Federal agents tracked at least eight shipments, including one worth an estimated $165,000.

Federal agents used surveillance and shipping, phone and bank records to track the suspect shipments. Arrests were made in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Texas.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security were involved in the law enforcement operation.

One suspect told an undercover federal agent during a purchase that it was difficult to bring ivory into the United States, but easy to sell it at high prices, the government statement said.


Two other suspects also are accused of paying a courier $15,000 to bring a shipment of ivory from Cameroon into the United States.

The U.S. banned ivory imports in 1976, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora effectively outlawed trade in elephant tissue in 1989.

Illegal trade in African elephant ivory is considered to be a major cause of the continuing decline of elephant populations in Africa.

The defendants are expected to appear in court in New York on Wednesday. They face jail terms of up to 20 years if convicted.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kathi:
"Illegal trade in African elephant ivory is considered to be a major cause of the continuing decline of elephant populations in Africa."

Exactly where is any data to support this claim. I read on this very forum about burgeoning elephant populations being a problem that requires culling , translocation,etc.

People ask me regularly how it came to be that I was able to shoot an endangered elephant.We need to scream from the mountaintops every chance we get,"Elephants are not declining.They are not endangered.In most of Africa they are being managed quite well.Especially in southern Africa.There are more elephants generally than there is room to put them."

I wonder how they pull the value out of the air? Little pieces of ivory? Must be tons and tons of ivory. Which I doubt.

Most of it goes to China. Where is the indignation for that?

bureaucratic decisions - you guys know that they can never be wrong on anything

Once again, thanks Kathi for the awesome news You provide.

I shift the blame onto the U.S. government.
Elephant is currently and legally hunted in Cameroon according to the CITES quotas.
When an American is hunting in Cameroon, every non American hunter can bring back his ivory and the poor miffed American hunter is kept out of the fun.
The same in Mozambique.
Add the legally hunted leopards????
Move your government gentlemen?

quote:

agents tracked at least eight shipments, including one worth an estimated $165,000

Must have been solid gold, not ivory.

quote:

Originally posted by jbderunz:
Once again, thanks Kathi for the awesome news You provide.

I shift the blame onto the U.S. government.
Elephant is currently and legally hunted in Cameroon according to the CITES quotas.
When an American is hunting in Cameroon, every non American hunter can bring back his ivory and the poor miffed American hunter is kept out of the fun.
The same in Mozambique.
Add the legally hunted leopards????
Move your government gentlemen?

It did not seem to be sport-hunted ivory being brought back by hunters from what I read. Who would turn their tusks into a guitar to smuggle them in?

I would like to see the US permit the importation of legitimate trophy ivory from Mozambique and other CITES countries. No disagreement there.