The Customs Department has seized 4 million baht of elephant ivory that was recently shipped to Thailand in a paper box labelled as furniture equipment.
Elephant tusks are put on display by customs officials after they were intercepted from a wildlife trade gang believed to have smuggled them from Africa. Somchai Poomlard
Officials decided to X-ray scan the box following a tip-off that a gang trading in illegal wildlife was attempting to covertly send ivory from Africa to Thailand, deputy Customs Department chief Chaiyut Kumkun said yesterday.
The scan showed suspicious items inside, prompting the officials to open the box which was found to contain 28 pieces of ivory weighing a combined 41kg.
No one has shown up to claim ownership yet, Mr Chaiyut said.
Authorities believe a transnational crime syndicate is behind the smuggling.
According to an initial investigation, the box was loaded onto an Ethiopian Airlines plane in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo in central Africa.
The aircraft made a transit stop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the parcel was transferred to another Ethiopian Airlines' flight found for Suvarnabhumi airport.
The National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department is keeping hold of the seized ivory while the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division investigates.
Thai authorities have stepped up their crackdowns on smuggled ivory after the country was put under close watch by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).
The regulatory body threatened to impose an international wildlife trade ban on Thailand if it was unable to stop the illegal ivory trade in and through the country.
Cites officials said Thailand is a major hub of the African ivory trade in Southeast Asia.
In 2015, Thai wildlife officials destroyed up to 2 tonnes of confiscated ivory.
