Kenyan police nab 3 suspects with elephant tusks

NAIROBI: Kenyan police said Monday they are interrogating three suspects with 12 pieces of elephant tusks with a street value of 5.8 million shillings (46,290 U.S. dollars) in the lakeside town of Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

National police spokesperson Resila Onyango said security forces recovered 58 kilograms of elephant tusks from the three suspects who were arrested on Sunday in Naivasha.

Onyango said that going by the number of recovered tusks, it shows six elephants were killed. “The trade in tusks is illegal and everyone should know this. We will investigate further to get all players involved.”

The suspects were driving in a saloon car on Sunday afternoon in Naivasha when they were intercepted. The suspects will appear in court later to face charges of trafficking in the tusks once investigations are complete.

Conservationists have decried the entry of organized crime syndicates into the illegal wildlife trade, most notably of rhino horn and elephant tusk, which they say has created a crisis situation in many African countries.

The Kenya Wildlife Service, on its part, has expressed fears that poaching has contributed to the depletion of wildlife including elephants, lions and rhinos, threatening many years of conservation efforts and animal populations that had started to recover.

-Xinhua