According to EIA, the ivory was bought during the weeks leading up to the visit by President Xi Jinping in March 2013. It adds that ivory had been smuggled out of Tanzania in a similar manner during other high-level visits since 2010.

Shruti Suresh, a wildlife campaigner at the agency, told The EastAfrican the syndicate had been unearthed through interactions with ivory traders during undercover investigations.

The traders informed the investigators that Chinese buyers began purchasing thousands of kilogrammes of ivory a fortnight to the presidential visit, and later smuggled the same in the diplomatic bag.

“All of this has been captured on video and the footage is available. Our report merely presents the information and observations of traders EIA met during investigations in Tanzania. The use of diplomatic bags for smuggling ivory has been reported in the past as well,” Ms Suresh said.

C&P from RINK

Why don't we just clone as many elephants and rhinos and lions as the market demands?

Why not re-create all the extinct animals?

Now let the kenyan tree-huggers start screaming....