Ugandan authorities have seized 750 pieces of ivory and thousands of pangolin scales being smuggled from neighbouring South Sudan<\/a> in one of the largest seizures of wildlife contraband in the East African country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ivory and pangolin scales were discovered inside hollowed-out logs in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, authorities said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two Vietnamese men, suspected of smuggling, were detained.
The illegal cargo was discovered after the Ugandan Revenue Authority (URA) officers scanned three six-metre containers carrying timber logs which had crossed the border from South Sudan.
After growing suspicious, a team secretly tailed the cargo to a warehouse in Kampala and made the bust.
“Logs were hollowed out and filled with ivory and pangolin scales then resealed with tonnes of melted wax to disguise the contraband,” URA spokesman Vincent Seruma told AFP news agency.
“In a single container there were more than 700 pieces of ivory and more than 200 pangolin scales but we expect to recover thousands of scales,” he added.
The full value of the cargo has yet to be established but the agency estimated at least 325 elephants would have been killed to acquire the ivory.
Seruma said the traffickers were part of a “very dangerous racket” which takes advantage of conflicts in eastern and central Africa<\/a> to poach endangered species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n