The Uganda Revenue Authority has busted an illegal wildlife smuggling racket that was transporting endangered animal parts including Pangolin shells and Elephants Ivory.
The racket consisting of two suspects, Dhan Yan and Nguyen Deng, both Phillipine nationals had concealed the contraband between logs of timber that they had creatively hollowed to store the items as part of legal goods being transported from DR Congo where other poachers meet and deal in banned items.
According to URA, 750 pieces of ivory and thousands of pangolin scales had been verified. The process is still underway.
For 750 pieces of ivory to be amassed , 325 elephants have to lose their lives.
Thousands of Pangolins too. This is the cost of poaching on Africa’s wild life.
The agencies concerned namely URA, Uganda Wild Life , Police are collaborating with all other agencies involved to ensure that we get to the bottom of this racket and to ensure that the perpetrators face the full arm of the law in the name of protecting African Wildlife.
The mobile Non-Intrusive Inspection scanner confirmed something unusual tucked away in a trio of 20 ft containers which crossed from South Sudan into Uganda carrying logs of timber. Timber was the declared item in transit but the scanner proved otherwise.
This revelation should sound a warning to all involved in smuggling of any nature that the Ugandan borders are increasingly becoming impenetrable thanks to NII Tech.
More investment in NII technology is needed to ensure that all our borders are technologically fortified.