Hanoi - Police arrested five men for smuggling 150 kilograms of
elephant ivory from
Vietnam to China, an officer said Wednesday.
Do The Khuynh, head of the traffic police in Quang Ninh province, said officers stopped the men's car Friday for speeding on the highway to the border post at Mong Cai.
Police found 30 elephant tusks and 15 pieces of worked ivory inside the vehicle, according to the international anti-wildlifesmuggling organization Traffic.
The Chinese ivory market is the main driver of the international trade in illegal ivory, the organization said, with Vietnam also figuring as a "country of concern."
Vietnam's indigenous elephant population has declined to critical levels in recent years due to poaching and habitat destruction, with as few as 150 animals remaining in the wild, according to Traffic.
Much of the elephant ivory that transits through Vietnam to
China originates in Africa. Customs officials have seized several large shipments illegal ivory. In March 2009, port officers in Haiphong seized 6.2 tons of elephant tusks shipped from Africa, and in August they seized 2 tons.
