Ivory Dealer Gets U.S.$1 Million Bail in United States

In what could be a huge breakthrough in the fight against rampant organised poaching, a Philadelphia businessman, known to have tentacles throughout Central and Southern Africa has been arrested in the US for dealing in poached ivory.

Victor Gordon (68), who was arrested in the US for dealing in ivory poached from Africa, was released on Wednesday on US$1 million bail.

Gordon pleaded not guilty in the US federal court in Brooklyn to charges of conspiracy, smuggling and violating the Lacey Act, an anti-trafficking law aimed at curbing illegal shipments of protected wildlife, including ivory.

Federal officials seized roughly a tonne of ivory from Gordon's various stores in the largest US seizure on record.

According to an indictment filed in federal court in New York, Gordon paid an unidentified co-conspirator US$32 000 to undertake several trips to buy "raw" ivory in Africa between May 2006 and April 2009.

Environment and Natural Resources Management Minister Francis Nhema is on record as saying poachers in the region have become much more sophisticated and using advanced equipment than security forces.

This points out to the presence of big international money behind the syndicates.

The arrest of Gordon, a major final buyer of the ivory, is likely to cripple some of the poaching syndicates to the advantage of the endangered species.

Gordon allegedly had his agent purchase raw elephant ivory and get it carved then stained or dyed so that it appeared old and therefore, not subject to endangered species law, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn allege.

He then sold the carved tusks through his shop in Philadelphia, Victor Gordon Enterprises, they said.

It has long been an assumption by the authorities and the general public that almost all ivory poached in Africa ends up in Asia.

Asians are particularly blamed for endangering rhino populations in Africa as they value the horn for its alleged aphrodisiac qualities.

Asians have also been implicated in international elephant tusk poaching syndicates.

Trade in the ivory of African elephants is illegal under the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, better known as Cites.

Experts predict that the African elephant will be extinct within a decade if the killing continues to escalate.

In Zimbabwe, police have arrested three men on allegations of possessing two elephant tusks in Chitungwiza.

The three were arrested by detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department Border Control Unit on Sunday following a tip-off.

Unit spokesperson Detective Inspector Bright Matimbe yesterday confirmed the arrests and said investigations were still in progress

"Our detectives received information that the trio was in possession of elephant tusks weighing 8kg, leading to their arrest," he said.

He said the suspects were still in custody. Detective Insp Matimbe warned poachers that police were out to get them.

"We would also want to urge members of the public to desist from such activities as we will not hesitate to arrest all those found on the wrong side of the law.

Last week, 10 men, including four former soldiers, were arrested in Harare in two separate incidents for poaching and illegal possession of ivory and rhino horns.

Staggering amount of ivory smuggled into US

An art store owner has surrendered on charges he smuggled one tonne of banned African elephant ivory into the United States.

Victor Gordon is accused of getting his ivory from west and central Africa, where conservationists consider the ivory trade a major threat to the dwindling African elephant population. He paid an unnamed co-conspirator to buy and carve the ivory, and then had them stain it to appear to be decades old to get around an international treaty, prosecutors said.

US officials called the amount of ivory seized in the case staggering, but could not immediately estimate how many elephants allegedly died at Gordon's hands.

"It's safe to say dozens of elephants sit before you," Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said at a news conference Tuesday in Philadelphia, where officials displayed a cache of intricately carved tusks seized from Gordon and his customers.

Gordon, 68, had the tusks smuggled through New York, where the case is being prosecuted, authorities said. He appeared in federal court in Brooklyn with his lawyer Tuesday morning, and was released on US$1 million bond.

The lawyer, Daniel-Paul Alva, said his client pleaded not guilty. He said Gordon is a legitimate collector and dealer of ivory tusks who has documentation to show he was collecting them in the hopes of leaving them to a museum and who had no knowledge that any of them came from illegal poaching. A phone at the downtown Philadelphia store, Victor Gordon Enterprises, appeared to be disconnected.

Ivory over 100-years-old can be imported as an antique. Newer ivory has been banned since the 1980s under an international conservation treaty.

Nonetheless, demand for the ivory has exploded with the economic growth of Asia, where ivory figures are treasured. The elephant population has fallen sharply in the past 20 to 30 years, said Richard Ruggiero, a chief conservationist with the wildlife service.

"The market goes up, so the killing goes up," he said.

Poachers first seek out the largest males in the group, then mid-size males, then the largest females, typically the matriarchs. With their deaths, the social structure of the group disintegrates, he said.

Some of the tusks displayed Tuesday appeared to come from a 30- to 50-year-old bull elephant that would have weighed five tons, officials said.

"It's like displaced persons from a war," Ruggiero said. "We're seeing the last battle for the survival of the forest elephant in central Africa right now."

Gordon's indictment capped a five-year investigation begun after agents intercepted ivory being smuggled through John F. Kennedy International Airport. More than a half-dozen people were convicted as they worked their way up to get Gordon, officials said.

The ivory was smuggled from or through Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, officials said.

While Ruggiero cited Gabon as an example of a country with progressive leadership to fight elephant poaching, other countries lack the resources or will to do so.

"Elephants, they know what's going on. They know they're being hunted," Ruggiero said. "Their entire ability to use their habitat and be social animals is greatly compromised, because they're under so much pressure."