Market trader busted with illegal ivory trinkets in Almuñecar

THE GUARDIA CIVIL swooped on Almunecar´s popular Friday market on January 22, confiscating a dozen pieces of ivory when a stall owner could not produce documentation to prove legal ownership. 

Local officers demanded to see CITES certificates for the items, as stipulated by the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and corresponding bills of receipt, neither of which the seller had. 

The Washington Convention banned the illegal international trade of ivory in October 1990, in an attempt to crack down on poaching for the purpose of profit. 

The Guardia Civil have since instigated legal proceedings against the vendor and the ivory items are now in the hands of the State Agency of Tributary Administration in Motril.