SINGAPORE, July 11 (UPI) -- The Singaporean Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said Thursday it had seized a container with around six tons of raw elephant tusks and cut ivory pieces at the main port, after receiving a tip.
The ivory seizure was June 28, but the Singapore authorities waited to announce it until Thursday for fear of compromising the following investigation, Goh Shih Yong, a government spokesman said.
A total of 532 pieces of raw elephant tusks and about 40,810 ivory pieces (which are used to make official seals) worth about $857,000 (1.5 million Singapore dollars) were stuffed in six wooden crates. The shipment of ivory, which originated in Africa, was headed for Japan, a thriving market for official seals.
Goh, saying that the investigation was still ongoing, refused to give any details on where the shipment was coming from or whether any arrests were made.
"We don't want to tip off the perpetuators about what we know, which is why I'm only giving you the basic details," he said.
Goh said that the last seizure of illegal ivory in Singapore was in 1993, when a man was arrested for importing six pieces of carved ivory from Hong Kong without a permit.
The African elephant is an endangered species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Its population was decimated from an estimated 1.3 million in the 1980s to approximately 600,000 today. Despite a worldwide ban on ivory since 1989, illegal ivory trade is still a problem.
