Woman arrested for possession of suspected ivory

Police said the woman had been in possession of ivory with the street value of more than R9 700.

“After being searched at the airport, the suspect was found in possession of two blocks of suspected ivory inside her luggage and she was wearing a bangle made of ivory,” said police.

“It is alleged that during the search she offered police officers a R2 000 bribe so that she could not be arrested.”

The woman would appear in the Verulam Magistrates’ Court soon.

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni said: “We will continue to safeguard everybody and everything that comes into our country during this festive season, and we will not let criminals use our province for their illegal deeds”.

In a separate incident, a 58-year-old woman was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport after being found in possession of 40kg of ivory last year.

READ MORE: Woman caught with ivory at OR Tambo

The SA Revenue Service (SARS) said customs officials caught the Chinese woman aboard an SA Airways flight, which was about to leave for Hong Kong, the SA Press Association reported.

Officials had acted on intelligence information received beforehand, and found ivory worth about R400 000 wrapped in a foil, brown paper and clothes in the woman’s luggage.

Last week, a joint report by campaign groups Save the Elephants and The Aspinall Foundation said the illegal ivory trade was increasing in China.

The groups said “skyrocketing” demand for ivory in China has sparked a booming trade in smuggled ivory that was driving the unsustainable killing of elephants in Africa.

This after the wholesale price of raw elephant tusks tripled since 2010, according to ivory market researchers Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin.

Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton said: “100 000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa in just three years between 2010 and 2012, according to our research. China holds the key to the future of elephants – without China’s leadership in ending demand for ivory, Africa’s elephants could disappear from the wild within a generation.”