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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Authorities in Vietnam have seized nearly 2 tons of elephant tusks illegally imported from Malaysia, state media reported Wednesday.
Customs officials in the northern port city of Hai Phong found the tusks last week in a container shipped from Malaysia en route to China, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said Wednesday. The cargo had been declared as sea shells.
Customs officials were not immediately available for comment.
In 2009, authorities in Hai Phong confiscated nearly 7 tons of ivory smuggled from Tanzania in the country's biggest such seizure.
The tusks were to be used for jewelry and home decorations.
Vietnam bans the hunting of the country's dwindling population of elephants, which poachers value highly for their tusks.
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