Three tonnes of African elephant tusks seized in Thai port

Ivory hidden in wood blocks sealed with paraffin in 2 containers

PUBLISHED : 26 Oct 2026 at 16:23

CHON BURI - Customs officials seized about three tonnes of elephant tusks smuggled from Africa found hidden inside timber consignments in two shipping containers at Laem Chabang port.

Customs director-general Phantong Loykulnanta told reporters at the port on Monday that officials impounded 469 elephant tusks weighing 3.04 tonnes, 66.20 kilogrammes of elephant tusk fragments, 0.18kg of elephant tusk tail hair and a lion's carcass last month.

The value of the goods, shipped from Zambia, was estimated at 155 million baht.

Mr Phantong said the seizure resulted from information provided by the Wildlife Justice Commission and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Without that infornation, the contraband would have been very difficult to find. The ivory was hidden inside 32 blocks of processed wood and sealed in paraffin wax to block detection through X-ray. 

The 32 blocks of wood were each 3 metres long and 20-30 centimetres thick, and they were mixed with 536 other blocks of wood, weighing 56 tonnes in total, and shipped inside two containers. 

“It is one of the biggest seizure of smuggled elephant tusks that we have made,” the customs chief said.

Officials collected DNA samples from the tusks, which can be used to pinpoint their point of origin. 

The bust had not been announced earlier because it had taken a long time to boil and clean each of the paraffin-coated tusks, Mr Phantong said.

The elephant tail hair found with the tusks was believed to be for use in making talismans.

Elephant tusks were hidden inside wooden blocks filled with paraffin wax.