Dubai Customs foiled a bid to smuggle a huge quantity of 215 pieces of ivory (tusks) worth more than AED 15 million into the country by one of the companies through Jebel Ali Port concealed in 50 cartons of beans.
Saeed Ahmed Al Tayer the Director of Jebel Ali Customs centres said that Dubai Customs inspectors at Jebel Ali suspected a shipment coming from an African country while passing through the container scanner. The system images showed a doubt about the contents of the carton pointing out that the company described the shipment in the customs declaration as food stuff “white beans”.
In view of the sense of security and awareness enjoyed by the customs officers together with their vigilance, the process was suspended at the suspicion indicator as displayed by the scanner images. The shipment was then referred to manual inspection where huge quantities of ivory equivalent to almost 108 elephants of different ages were found along with the seeds of beans.
Al Tayer said that the seized quantity was brought in for the purposes of trading by virtue of their hugeness and the method of smuggling but the dream of unlawful wealth by the shipment owners at the African country lost ground due to customs officers` vigilance and knowledge of materials that are criminalized by local legislations and international conventions to which UAE is a signatory.
Al Tayer maintained that the seized quantities were confiscated and referred to the Ministry of Environment and Water being the competent agency that enforces the Convention on International Trading in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), for further processing with the other relevant agencies.
Saeed Al Tayer stated that after customs inspectors` doubt about the shipment and having ascertained its contents, the matter was reported to the Ministry of Environment, which examined a sample of the shipment and found to be the endangered Loxodonta Africana.
Ivory is among the products which cannot be traded in as provided for in the Federal Law No. 11/2002 concerning CITES that regulates international trading in endangered species of wild fauna and flora to which UAE acceded in 1990.
Al Tayer underlined that Dubai Customs is an agency, which performs UAE`s international obligations together with the regulations and legislations received from the local agency concerned with the enforcement of the Convention namely the Ministry of Environment.
Al Tayer pointed out that the collection of tusks comes through criminal practices by some weak-willed persons who kill elephants and rhinoceros in order to get their tusks, which are used in adornments, ornaments and some traditional medicine.
Wild life experts affirmed that the demand of ivory being smuggled by international criminal bands is increasing worldwide.
Al Tayer referred to Dubai Customs` effort to preserve the environment and the on-going awareness of the society members through inspectors` training courses to recognize the species contained in CITES, how to encounter bids of smuggling and handling of seizures including the awareness campaigns about the endangered fauna and flora and enhancing the society`s awareness about the environment and community issues the last of which were the awareness campaigns organized this year at Mirdiff City Center.
In particular, Dubai Customs is the most prominent government department that places preservation of environment and wild life at the top of its strategic objectives pursuant to the international initiatives and agreements in this connection.
Worth mentioning, the ivory seizure was detected through relying upon the database that managed by Customs Intelligence Department at Dubai Customs using a Risk Engine that embodied in the customs clearing system (Mirsal 2) for selecting and targeting all suspected cargos based on scientific criteria and rules following the collection, collation and analysis of information within the intelligence cycle.