Authorities in Thailand have seized 300 Kilograms of ivory from Malawi in Thailand`s Capital, Bangkok on Monday.
According to Bangkok Post Online news, the latest haul of 422 pieces of elephant tusks was discovered on two Ethiopian Airline Flights from Addis Ababa.
The ivory has been identified to be from Malawi according to the statement from custom Department in Thailand.
The statement reads: “A Gambian man Sainey Jagne, who came to collect the packages on Sunday, was arrested and charged with smuggling banned wildlife products.”
The international trade in ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since the late 1980`s after a precipitous decline in the population of African elephants.
But that has not stopped criminal gangs seeking to exploit the continued demand for the material in Asia.
Tusks and other body parts of elephants are prized for decoration as talismans and for use in traditional medicine across parts of Asia despite a lack of any peer reviewed proof it works with China being a major market for such products.