Vietnam State-controlled media say authorities in Vietnam have seized 2.4 tons of elephant tusks illegally imported from Africa, reports Associated Press.
The Laborer newspaper says customs officials in Ho Chi Minh City discovered the tusks in a container shipped from Mozambique which had been declared cowhide.
The newspaper said that the tusks were worth an estimated US$4.9-million on the black market. Customs officials were not immediately available for comment.
In 2009, authorities in the northern port city of Hai Phong confiscated nearly 7-t of elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania in the country's biggest such seizure.
The tusks were to be used for jewelry and home decorations.
Vietnam bans the hunting of the country's dwindling elephant population, which poachers value highly for their tusks.
