Follow Hong Kong Investment Immigration and Hong Kong News: On November 27, Hong Kong returned smuggled ivory and rhino horn products worth a total of 23 million rand (approximately 13.8 million yuan) to South Africa.
These ivory and rhino horns were seized by Hong Kong customs officers from a ship that arrived from Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2011. In a container on the ship, customs officers discovered 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory chopsticks, and 127 ivory bracelets.
After these illegal smuggled items were confiscated, South African authorities have been in contact with Hong Kong to try to recover them. Colonel John Just of the South African Police stated, "It took us more than a year to reclaim these items. This is the first time we have successfully recovered such smuggled items." South African media consider this recovery a "significant victory in the war against poaching."
Just informed reporters that South Africa has signed a relevant memorandum of understanding with China. Hong Kong is an important transit point for South Africa to Southeast Asian countries, and South Africa is currently negotiating with Hong Kong to sign a related memorandum. He stated that South Africa will also work with relevant parties in Hong Kong to investigate the source and intended destination of these ivory and rhino horns.
South African media reports suggest that the mastermind behind the trafficking of these items may be the wildlife smuggling tycoon Sesavang from Laos, who allegedly colludes with poaching leaders and uses prostitutes to entice poachers to hunt rhinos. It is said that he smuggles wildlife worth over 10 billion dollars annually. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry even offered a reward of 1 million dollars to "dismantle" this smuggling network.
In recent years, poaching activities targeting rhinos in South Africa have surged, and the smuggling of ivory and rhino horns through South Africa has also been rampant. Due to the high demand for rhino horns and ivory products in Southeast Asia and East Asia, nearly a thousand rhinos have been poached in South Africa this year alone, far exceeding the 668 poached last year and the 448 in 2011.
