It was declared to be a shipment containing groundnuts, but authorities uncovered something way more unpalatable than a bunch of legumes hidden within a container on Monday.
In a joint press release released yesterday by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA), a container detained at the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station was found to hold 61 bags of elephant ivory — 1,787 pieces in total, weighing about 3,500 kg altogether.
The shipment of ivory originated from Apapa, Nigeria, and was meant to be re-exported to Vietnam. According to the authorities, the value of the elephant tusks was estimated to be worth about US$2.5 million. The illegal shipment itself was detected thanks to an inter-agency risk assessment and collaboration.
Expressing the government’s zero-tolerance stance on the use of Singapore as a conduit to smuggle endangered species and their parts, AVA has since seized the ivory and is conducting investigations with the importer.
Those convicted of illegally importing, exporting possessing, selling, offering, and advertising for sale or display to public any illegal wildlife species can be fined up to $500,000 and or two years in prison. The same applies to those responsible for the transit or transhipment of illegal wildlife species.
