Half a ton of African ivory seized at Vietnam port

The ivory found in the two containers, which are owned by the HCMC-based Dao Gia Company, is worth more than VND20 billion ($881,700).

Ho Chi Minh City customs officers seize around 500kg of ivory hidden in two timber containers imported from Africa on Friday. (Photo: VNE)

The elephant tusks were covered in glue and stuck to the center of timber blocks, which were then laid randomly with normal blocks in the containers.

Authorities decided to search the suspected containers by hand after scanners failed to detect the smuggled ivory.

A number of pangolin scales were also found in the two containers.

This latest case has raised the number of major ivory seizures in Vietnam to three in just a month.

On October 6, customs officials in Ho Chi Minh City also seized around two tons of ivory hidden in another timber shipment in two crates from Mozambique.

That seizure followed October 1's discovery of 300kg of elephant ivory at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport, where officials found tusks from Nigeria falsely labeled as glass.

Vietnam outlawed the ivory trade in 1992.