4 traffickers, including a veteran soldier, arrested with 2 elephant tusks
4 traffickers, including a veteran soldier, arrested with 2 elephant tusks weighing 42 kg. They used a motorcycle to transport the elephant tusks that were stored in a nearby village. The traffickers were intending to use the profit from the deal to generate the killing of elephants in the Tai National Park. The operation took place close to the Park which is the biggest contiguous rainforest of West Africa. From several indications the tusks were from an adult elephant slaughtered in the park that has an estimated population of 300 elephants. Elephants, the country's emblem, are on the brink of extinction in the country: their numbers have halved in thirty years. Immediately, after the operation the Team travelled to another town for a leopard skin trafficking operation.