Tanzanian Police are holding two policemen and a citizen from Biharamulo district in Kagera region, in connection with illegal possession of 17 pieces of elephant tusks.
The Mara regional police commander, Mr Absalom Mwakyoma, confirmed the seizure of the ivory and arrests of the suspects yesterday.
He said the trio (names withheld) were arrested yesterday at Rwamchanga village near Mugumu town, the headquarters of Serengeti district.
The RPC credited the arrest of the policemen at a guest house to a tip-off by their civilian accomplice.
He said initial investigations revealed that the policemen were assigned to ferry the ivory by a wealthy businessman (name withheld), a resident in Biharamulo.
He said the suspects were arrested when the police in collaboration with game rangers from the Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) trailed them.
He said the ivory was ferried in a pick-up belonging to one of the arrested policemen.
Mr Mwakyoma said the two policemen will be court-marshalled after all procedures have been followed.
The RPC said the policemen will appear in court tomorrow to answer charges of unlawful possession of government trophies.
Mr Mwakyoma said the government should have expected the law enforcers to be in the frontline in the fight against poaching instead of being perpetrators themselves.
The government is overwhelmed by the poaching, which has definitely gone out of control.
Hundreds of elephants were killed last year by poachers, prompting the government to withdraw an application to sell to China and Japan over 100 tonnes of ivory valued at over $55.5million (about Sh88.8billion).
The request had been submitted in early October last year and was due to be discussed at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) meeting in March in Bangkok.
But conservation groups opposed the application.
Just a week after the government announced that it had submitted its latest proposal to Cites, Hong Kong authorities confiscated two shipping containers from Tanzania and Kenya loaded with 3,628kg of elephant tusks worth $3.4 million.
The following month the same Hong Kong authorities confiscated some 1,330kg of ivory worth $1.4 million believed to have been obtained after at least 150 elephants were slaughtered. Natural Resources and Tourism minister Khamis Kagasheki confirmed that the ivory came from Tanzania.
Tanzania’s total ivory stockpile stands at 137,229.20kg, out of which 101,005kg were saleable.
In 2010, the country unsuccessfully applied to be allowed to sell 90,000kg of its stockpile, then valued at $20 million. Tanzania had teamed up with Zambia to push for a one-off ivory stockpile sale, their application was rejected at last year’s Cites CoP (Conference of the Parties) in Doha, Qatar.
Stiff resistance also came from the northern neighbour, Kenya, which put up a spirited campaign to shoot down the Tanzania/Zambia request in 2010.
Countries wanting to sell their ivory stockpiles must garner the support of at least two-thirds of the 176 Cites member states.
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