Another paltry fine for ivory smuggling

 

 

On March 26, a Chinese man (Tian Yi) admitted smuggling 439 pieces of ivory from Democratic Republic of Congo to Hong Kong via Nairobi. He was caught at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on March 10, 2013 while in transit from DRC to Hong Kong.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the contraband had been chopped into pieces of two inches each and painted brown. They were then hidden in a suitcase and mixed with tree barks to disguise it as traditional medicine. But he was detected and intercepted by a joint security team comprising Kenya Airports Police Unit, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Airways (KQ) and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

On March 25, the Kenyan (Makadara Law Court in Nairobi) court fined him KSh30,000 (about US$350). Not surprisingly, he has paid the fine and has been set free.

For more information, see:

http://www.kws.org/info/news/2013/26smugglingivory2013.html

or

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Chinese-caught-smuggling-ivory/-/1056/1731436/-/ml0jc/-/index.html