Thailand seized 4 tons of ivory hidden in bean sacks tracked from Congo in what authorities said was the biggest bust in the country's history, customs officials said Monday.

 

The 739 elephant tusks, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival at a port in Bangkok on Saturday after the authorities received a tip-off and had tracked the containers from Congo, the Customs Department's director-general Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters.

 

He said that the shipment, labeled as beans, was shipped out of Congo in February and went through Malaysia before reaching the Bangkok port.

 

"We have been following the (shipment) for two months. Intelligence reports said ivory from Africa might be smuggled with other products to go through the Laotian border," Somchai said.

 

Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combating the problem.

 

Somchai said authorities believe that had the ivory worth $6 million had reached Laos, it would then have been distributed to buyers in China, Vietnam and Thailand.

 

Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.

 

 

PHOTO: Customs officer and media members gather around confiscated elephant tusks during a news conference at the Port Authority of Thailand in Bangkok April 20, 2015. Thai customs officials have seized four tonnes of ivory worth $6 million, authorities said on Monday, in what the department called the largest bust of its kind in Thailand's history. The elephant tusks were hidden in bags containing dried beans in containers originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Thai Customs Department said in a statement, and were bound for Laos.

CREDIT: REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom.