Singapore authorities have made their biggest seizure of rhino horn to date, worth a total of $830,000, confiscated from a smuggler arriving from South Africa. The contraband was detected by sniffer dogs at Singapore Changi Airport who found two bags containing 20 pieces of rhino horn weighing a total of 75 pounds. Although rhinos are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the international trade of horns is prohibited, rhinos still face grave threats as more than 2,700 rhinos were poached in Africa between 2018 and 2021. The confiscated horns are undergoing genetic testing in order to identify the species that were affected and will be destroyed after testing to prevent them from reentering the market.
Learn more about the largest seizure of rhino horns in Singapore here.