ANOTHER CHINESE NATIONAL NABBED WITH 100 KG OF BLOOD IVORY
Airline security in conjunction with customs and police deployed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi have last night arrested yet another Chinese national, transiting in Nairobi with blood ivory in his baggage. This latest find is again attributed to the increasingly alert officers at the airport who now routinely screen even bags loaded from one flight to the next, often using sniffer dogs to discover the loot.
It appears that he was coming into Nairobi on a connecting flight from the Congo DR, where he must have bought the ivory, hoping he would get it home undetected and make a fortune with the contraband.
He was produced in court today, Friday, where charges of illegal possession of ivory were read to him before he was remanded in jail awaiting a full hearing of his case. Other charges may be added but several suspects have previously pleaded guilty, forfeited their loot and given lenient sentences before being deported.
Eastern African airport and sea ports have over the past few months recorded increased attempts to smuggle rhino horn, game trophies and in particular ivory out of the region to the Far East, where the revived economy is thought to be largely responsible in fueling demand for ivory and rhino horn and has driven poaching to a never before seen scale across Southern, Eastern and Western Africa.
The officials in Nairobi must be congratulated for their latest seizure and arrest and hopefully this will be a warning for all future wannabe smugglers, not to use Nairobi as a transit point.
