LOME, Togo – Police in Togo say they have arrested three men after discovering nearly two tons of ivory in a container marked for shipping to Vietnam.
Lt. Pierre Awi paraded the suspects, a 44-year-old Vietnamese man and his two Togolese accomplices, before reporters on Tuesday. He said police were still investigating where the ivory came from.
Conservationists say Togo operates as a transit country for ivory from Central Africa before it is shipped to Asia, where rising demand has fueled a boom in illicit trading over the past several years.
The international ivory trade was banned in 1989.
Last August Togo announced the arrest of a man known locally as "The Boss" of the country's ivory trade whose work activists say was linked to the slaughter of thousands of elephants.
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