Hong Kong Customs officers on Monday seized about 1,932 kilograms of ivory, worth about 2.7 million HK dollars (US$350,000), the Customs said Tuesday.

Customs officers from the Marine Investigation Unit of the Ports and Maritime Command intercepted on Monday two containers which were being driven away from container terminal by a tractor.

On inspection, they found 47 bags of ivory, camouflaged by tree trunks, inside the containers.

A 54-year-old driver, a 59-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman employed by a trading company were arrested.

Initial inquiries showed that the containers, declared to be containing 300 pieces of wood carvings, were imported from Indonesia into Hong Kong on Oct. 12.

Customs said it believes that the unmanifested ivory was from Tanzania in Africa.

Under the Import and Export Ordinance, the maximum penalty for importing unmanifested cargo is a fine of 2 million HK dollars (US$260,000) and seven years' imprisonment.

According to customs statistics, from 1979 to 1988 Hong Kong was the leading re-exporter of raw ivory, shipping 1,256 tones to markets in the East and West, particularly Japan, which in the same period imported a massive 2,827 tones of raw ivory.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2003)