Ivory found in sacks of simsim at the port

Ivory weighing nearly three tonnes has been found hidden in simsim bags en route to Turkey.

The bags, each weighing 90 kilogrammes, were in a 40-foot container.

Kenya Revenue Authority Southern region senior assistant commissioner Fatma Yusuf said the container had been ferried into the country through Malaba and transported to the port of Mombasa by railway.

The KRA and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officials were on Tuesday checking the 255 bags declared as containing simsim when they found the 2.9 tonnes of ivory buried deep in the sacks.

“The pieces of ivory had been wrapped with polythene material and hidden in the bags containing simsim seeds,” Ms Yusuf explained.
She did not disclose the origin of the cargo.

Verification took more than 10 hours, with dozens of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) workers having to endure a foul smell from some fresh pieces of ivory as they pulled them out of sacks.

The workers had to slash open every 90kg bag with a razor sharp blade to remove the smoothly cut pieces of ivory.

The verification ended before midnight.

The exporter was identified as Cosmo Freightnal Limited and the importer as Melmet Vegetable Oils Industry Incorporation.

Supreme Outlet Limited, Mombasa, was the agent.

It was the third time in a month that KRA, port police and KWS had discovered ivory hidden in bags containing either nuts or simsim amid concerns about elephant poaching.

Last week, the team seized another 40-foot container with 686 pieces of ivory weighing 1.95 tonnes.

The container also had pangolin scales.

The largest ivory haul ever seized at the port weighed 3.6 tonnes.

KWS assistant director Arthur Tuda said ivory smugglers had changed packaging styles in a bid to escape police dragnet, hence all cargo had to be verified.