CAMEROUN :: Cameroon: Two Ivory Tusks Seized in Yaounde and Man Arrested.

A team comprising wildlife and police officers arrested a suspected trafficker who was traveling in a dark blue car with two carved ivory tusks. The man was arrested after the car was stopped and searched, at an entrance to the Bastos neighourhood in Yaounde.

The operation that was carried out by the Centre Regional Delegation for Forestry and Wildlife in collaboration with the police was technically assisted by The Last Great Ape Organistion (LAGA) and is part of government’s initiative to track and prosecute wildlife traffickers.,

According to preliminary investigations that was revealed by a source close to the case, the man left Kribi early Monday May 22 to Yaounde. When he arrived the motor park at the Mvan neighbourhood, he boarded another car and made for the north of the town but because he had been under investigations for a while, he was quietly tracked and arrested as he climbed a short drive into the Bastos neighbourhood.

When police stopped the car, the alarmed man fidgeted and pushed the bag he was carrying in between his legs. He was asked to pull open the bag and two ivory tusks were recovered among underwear which he had used to wrap the ivory, with the intention to repel anyone who was keen on seeing what was bulging from the bundle. Traffickers are used to various concealment techniques and many say this is the first time they are uncovering the use of underwear to hide ivory.

The same unnamed sources said the 37-year old Kribi resident intended to travel to Meiganga for to get more wildlife products but needed to conduct business here in Yaounde so that he could have sufficient money for the trip to Meiganga – a town which seems to be turning out into a trafficking hub in the Adamawa region. An operation was carried out there in April and three people were arrested for lion and leopard skin trafficking.

The trafficker was pulled out of the car and taken to the police station, where could be heard denying that it was not ivory but bones which he had carved to trick clients into buying them. This is a new defence strategy used by ivory traffickers who pretend that what they have is not ivory but carved bones, presumably from cattle, when they are arrested. Prices for illegal ivory has been up for quite a few decades now and this is sustaining the black market for ivory where huge profits may be made and for this reason, some even try to sell bones when they can’t get ivory but when they equally use trick to trick wildlife officials that what they have are bones not ivory when arrested with ivory. Officials are generally not fooled by this maneuver because they very well know the difference between the two and a technique using the “Schreger lines” are used when in doubt.

The 1994 wildlife law prohibits the trade in protected wildlife species and traffickers arrested breaking the law may face up to 3 years imprisonment and a fine of up to10 million CFA Francs. Wildlife officials are presently doing preliminary work for prosecution proper to begin and charges including unlawful possession, circulation of and commercialization of ivory and killing of a protected species, in this instance an elephant are expected to be brought against the suspect who is presently behind bars. He was presented to the state counsel two days after his arrest.