REPORTS that a 2.7kg elephant tusk had passed through the Sabah Customs checkpoint in Tawau have been dismissed by the department.

“If the ivory had passed through Tawau, Customs officers would have noticed it at the security checkpoint there,” said its director, Janathan Kandok.

He said the tusk may have come from elsewhere as it did not match those of the local Borneo pygmy elephant.

“We have reason to believe that the ivory had been brought into Sabah from another location.

“Smugglers could have then used an illegal entry point to enter Nunukan (in Indonesia),” he told reporters in Kota Kinabalu.

It was reported that Indonesian Customs had seized a 2.7kg tusk, found wrapped in a sack of fertiliser, at the Nunukan checkpoint on July 24.

A 50-year-old migrant from East Nusa Tenggara was arrested. He told police that he had bought the tusk from a Malaysian for RM1,500.

Kandok said the man should have been arrested over the fertiliser found as fertiliser exports were controlled.

He said certain types of fertiliser could be used to make explosives, therefore, Customs officers should have cleared the man’s luggage before allowing him to leave the checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the state Wildlife Department said it would not issue a statement on the case, following a claim by an activist that the tusk had been brought out of the country “through the proper channels”.

In January, a woman heading to Flores was arrested in Nunukan after she was found to be transporting five tusks.

She said she had bought them in Malaysia.

Tusks are sometimes given as wedding dowry, with a pair said to be able to fetch up to RM70,000 in China. – August 3, 2017.