KAMPALA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan police late on Monday said they were holding two Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals after seizing 43kg of illegal ivory from them.
Josephine Angucia, West Nile police spokesperson, told Xinhua by telephone that the police flying squad, acting on intelligence reports, arrested Chaku Ndabah and James Aniku as they planned to sell 43 kg of ivory to Marachain, the northwestern Ugandan district.
She said the two suspects will be arraigned in court on charges of unlawful possession of protected species and conspiracy to commit a felony.
The offence is punishable by not more than five years in prison or a fine not less than the value of the wildlife product involved.
Ugandan police in August arrested seven traffickers in the western district of Rukungiri for illegal possession of 33.3kg of elephant tusks and 73.7 kg of hippo teeth.
Most of the ivory in Uganda is imported from the neighboring countries such as Tanzania and the DRC.
Uganda is mainly used as a transit point for smugglers of wildlife products as the offenders take advantage of porous borders in Africa's Great Lakes region to move illegal wildlife products around.
