Smuggled elephant tusks: Six TRA officials nabbed

-To help police identify the actual smugglers

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
June 1, 2009

SIX officials of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a multi-million dollar organised crime network smuggling large numbers of elephant tusks through the Dar es Salaam port to foreign lands.

Informed sources say the arrested officials from the customs department are believed to have abused their positions and accepted bribes from the smugglers.

The six were arrested specifically in connection with the smuggling of elephant tusks worth a whopping $29.41m (approx. 40bn/-) from Tanzania to Vietnam in March this year .

It is understood that this was the single biggest heist of elephant tusks smuggled from the country.

The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Shamsa Mwangunga, confirmed the arrest of the customs officials in an exclusive interview with THISDAY in Dar es Salaam at the weekend.

They were allegedly involved in approving the export documents for the illegal consignment.

Ms Mwangunga said the arrested officials are being held by police to assist in an ongoing investigation aimed at identifying the actual smugglers.

’’We have arrested these officials so they can name the person or persons behind this consignment,’’ the minister said.

She warned that authorities are determined to send a strong warning to public officials that smuggling of government trophies will not be tolerated.

She acknowledged the existence of some dishonest customs officials who conspire with corrupt exporters in the racket.

Ms Mwangunga called on members of the public to volunteer any information they may have on officials from the ministry who could also be involved in the racket.

’’It’s possible that some of my own officers could be involved in the smuggling of government trophies. However, port and TRA inspectors must also be held accountable for this crime,’’ the minister remarked.

She said the elephant tusks seized by customs officials in Vietnam will be returned to Tanzania for verification purposes.

’’A DNA test will be conducted on the tusks once they are brought back from Vietnam, the purpose being to verify their true origin,’’ she explained.

Vietnamese officials initially announced that the tusks were to be auctioned.

Customs officials at Vietnam’s Hai Phong port announced in March the discovery of a total of 6,232 kilogrammes of elephant tusks hidden in hundreds of boxes of plastic waste inside a container which had been transported from Tanzania through Malaysia.

Reports had it that more than 200 pairs of tusks were found in the haul.

Vietnamese officials are said to have been notified about the consignment when it was initially loaded onto a ship in Dar es Salaam in January, and had been waiting for the consignee to turn up at the Hai Phong port.

The consignee of the shipment was identified through the ship’s waybill as a local (Vietnamese) company called Phuc Thien Ngan. Hai Phong police have since been looking for the company�s director Vu Ngoc Tuan, but reportedly to no avail.

Early investigations indicated that after loading in Dar es Salaam, the shipment was transported to a port in Malaysia, before arriving at Hai Phong aboard a Malaysian-flagged vessel.

Vietnamese authorities believe the tusks would have then been transported to China, either by sea or road.

Early last month, authorities in the Philippines also confiscated a consignment of elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania weighing 3.5 tonnes.

The authorities ordered the suspension of licence and blacklisting of the consignee and broker in the Philippines who facilitated the $2m (approx. 3bn/-) illegal shipment.

The consignment arrived in Manila in March, and immediately drew suspicion because it was said to contain plastic.

Officials said some of the tusks in the consignment weighed as much as 25 kilogrammes each. They have since valued the consignment at over $2m (2.8bn/-), although that appears to be a conservative estimate given that in some countries prices are at or above $1,500 per kg.

Trade in ivory was banned under a 1989 UN Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species that has helped in the recovery of the elephant population in several African countries.

The Philippines Bureau of Customs said the consignee, identified as 210 Enterprises, along with customs broker Marilyn Pacheco, are both liable for the two separate shipments of elephant tusks from Tanzania that arrived at the port of Manila on March 1 and 5 this year from Dar es Salaam.

The shipments were initially falsely declared as blow moulding machines and recycled waste plastics.