WildNet Africa News Archive Police Alert for Smugglers after Elephant Massacre in the Congo. Customs officers and wildlife officials have been put on the alert througout South Africa for a massive consignment of smuggled ivory after poachers slaughtered nearly 200 elephants in the Congo. The elephants, which appear to have been mown down with machine-guns and assault rifles, were discovered in a salt marsh near the Odzala national park, about 800 km north of Brazzaville. Whole families of elephants were sprayed with machine-gun fire by the cowardly poachers.
Police suspect the smugglers plan to follow the usual route out of South Africa with their haul.
They travel south by road or air from the Congo and enter South Africa making for one of the ports, from where the tusks are shipped out to the Far East. Supt Lategan said if an attempt was made to smuggle the tusks through South African harbours, it was likely that they would be carefully concealed or disguised. Popular methods include placing tusks in hidden container compartments, chopping them up into 2cm-square blocks or staining the ivory to resemble tropical hardwoods. Courtesy of the Pretoria News. If you have no navigation at the top of the page, go HERE .