IVORY FOUND ON FLIGHT FROM KENYA AND AT NAIROBI AIRPORT
(Posted 06th April 2016)
Coming off a flight from Nairobi did customs officials in Bangkok yesterday confiscate 315 KG of blood ivory, which, while originally loaded in Mozambique, then transited Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport without being detected. The supposed recipient, when learning his contraband cargo had been seized, then fled Thailand but with his identity known is now a wanted man.
As some parts of the shipment did not make it on the connecting flight and were kept in storage in Nairobi, awaiting the next available flight to Bangkok, were Thai authorities able to alert their Kenyan counterparts who then checked the remaining boxes and confiscated a further 70 KG’s.
Meanwhile was surveillance better when on Monday night two Chinese, one is tempted to ask who else, were arrested as they tried to transit Nairobi while enroute from Lagos to Guangzhou.
While both only carried relatively small trinkets, probably bought as souvenirs, was one of the two also found to have a pound of pangolin scales in his baggage.
Both Chinese were remanded at the JKIA police station, similar to three other Chinese a few days earlier who, coming from Kinshasa also had prohibited wildlife items in their possession.
All of them can now expect trial and both heavy fines and lengthy jail time as a deterrent to stop passengers in transit to bring banned items with them when they connect to their final destination in Nairobi.
