16 jailed over HK$7.9m ivory haul

A group of 16 Vietnamese nationals arrested in Hong Kong's biggest airborne ivory-smuggling case were yesterday jailed for six months each, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said.

The 10 men and six women, aged between 20 and 54, were sentenced at Tsuen Wan Court, the department said. It did not reveal how they pleaded or name them.

The group were picked up at the airport on June 10 on their way from Angola via Ethiopia and Hong Kong to Cambodia after customs officers found 790kg of ivory packed into 32 piece of luggage. Customs officials said the goods - in high demand in mainland China and Southeast Asia - could have fetched up to HK$7.9 million.

It was the biggest ever seizure of ivory brought in by plane and came amid growing concern in the city about its role in the international ivory trade.

Seizures hit an all-time high of 8,041kg last year, up 43 per cent on 2012. It prompted concerns that the city was becoming a stopover point for smugglers taking ivory from Africa to Asia.

On May 15, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department began burning some of the 33 tonnes of illegal ivory seized between 2000 and last year after years of debate about how to dispose of it.