Dubai: Dubai Police handed over a shipment of 84 pieces of illegal ivory weighing a total of 300kg to the Ministry of Environment and Water so it would destroy them.
Brigadier Ali Atiq Bin Lahej, Director of the General Department of Airport Security at Dubai Police, said that the shipment was intercepted with the help of the Anti-Narcotics Department in March, while on transit in Dubai International Airport from the Ivory Coast to Vietnam.
He said that the seized ivory was worth around $3 million (Dh11 million) according to the market price, adding that the people would have probably killed around 40 elephants to get this amount of elephant tusks.
According to UAE law, ivory smugglers or anyone caught smuggling endangered animals or any of their parts face fines up to Dh50,000 or a jail term that can reach up to six months or what the judge orders depending on the case.
