Nairobi, Feb 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) Kenyan police said on Monday that they are interrogating three suspects with 12 pieces of elephant tusks with a street value of 5.8 million shillings (46,290 U.S. dollars) in the lakeside town of Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi.
National police spokesperson Resila Onyango said security forces recovered 58 kilograms of elephant tusks from the three suspects who were arrested on Sunday in Naivasha, Xinhua news agency reported.
Onyango said that going by the number of recovered tusks, it shows six elephants were killed.
"The trade in tusks is illegal and everyone should know this. We will investigate further to get all players involved."
The suspects were driving in a saloon car on Sunday afternoon in Naivasha when they were intercepted. The suspects will appear in court later to face charges of trafficking in the tusks once investigations are complete.
Conservationists have decried the entry of organized crime syndicates into the illegal wildlife trade, most notably of rhino horn and elephant tusk, which they say has created a crisis situation in many African countries.
The Kenya Wildlife Service, on its part, has expressed fears that poaching has contributed to the depletion of wildlife including elephants, lions and rhinos, threatening many years of conservation efforts and animal populations that had started to recover.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz