Singapore Customs and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) seized a record 8.8 tons of elephant ivory en route to Vietnam on Saturday.
Together with the National Park Board (NParks), the ICA inspected a shipment of three containers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which were said to contain timber, according to the documentation.
Elephant Ivory with an estimated value of $12.9 million had been packed into 132 bags.
237 additional bags contained 11.9 tons of pangolin scales with an estimated value of $35.7 million.
“The consistency of these large-scale seizures is strong evidence of organised crime behind illegal wildlife trade coming through or into Singapore,” Kim Stengert, chief communications officer for the World Wide Fund added.
According to ICA, the seizure came after a tipoff from the Chinese customs department.
“The seized pangolin scales and elephant ivory will be destroyed to prevent them from re-entering the market.”
This represented the third largest seizure of pangolin scales in Singapore in 2019, and largest seizure of elephant ivory in Singapore to date, NParks noted.
