KOTA KINABALU, Aug 3 ― Wildlife officials here are worried as Indonesia has detected a second ivory smuggling case this year at the North Kalimantan-Sabah border in Nunukan here.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said he was informed about the seizure of a Bornean elephant tusk weighing 2.7kg recovered from an Indonesian migrant worker travelling from Tawau  to his hometown in Kalimantan last week.

“We have some unofficial information from our friends there which is fairly accurate. We don’t know exactly how or what they are investigating but that they are smuggling prohibited items into their country,” said Tuuga when contacted by Malay Mail Online.  

He said there they had some details on the suspect’s background but “not enough to lead us to the likely seller.”

The suspect was arrested on July 24 when Customs officials at the Nunukan port found the tusk hidden in a fertiliser sack.

According to Indonesian news reports, Nunukan Police Chief Superintendent Jepri Yuniardi said that the suspect told officials he bought the tusk for RM1,500 in Kota Kinabalu.

Police are investigating  the case for the possibility of smuggling illegal ivory but the man insisted he was bringing it back to his hometown for traditional purposes.

He is currently being held by police to facilitate investigations for possession of ivory without a permit under Conservation of Biological and Natural Resources law and could face up to five years imprisonment and a fine.

In January, North Kalimantan Customs Department in Nunukan had arrested an Indonesian woman crossing the border in possession of five ivory tusks. The tusks were suspected to be from Sabah, where at least two butchered Borneo Pygmy elephants including a rare Sabre-toothed elephant were found in the Segama conservation just two weeks before.

When asked if the tusks in the latest case were possibly taken from elephants in Sabah, Tuuga said they do not have enough information to trace the origin of tusks.

The department is also hoping to obtain DNA samples of the previous seized tusks to compare to their data from elephants here to ascertain its origins.

Tuuga also said that the department would step up enforcement and intelligence gathering in light of the emergence of the case.