DNA testing exposes tactics of international criminal networks
trafficking elephant ivory

Date:
February 14, 2022
Source:
University of Washington
Summary:
Scientists have used genetic testing of ivory shipments seized by
law enforcement to uncover the international criminal networks
behind ivory trafficking out of Africa. The genetic connections
across shipments that they've uncovered exposes an even higher
degree of organization among ivory smuggling networks than
previously known. The article incorporates results from DNA testing
of more than 4,000 African elephant tusks from 49 different ivory
seizures made in 12 African nations over a 17-year period.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team led by scientists at the University of Washington and special
agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has used genetic
testing of ivory shipments seized by law enforcement to uncover
the international criminal networks behind ivory trafficking out of
Africa. The genetic connections across shipments that they've uncovered
exposes an even higher degree of organization among ivory smuggling
networks than previously known.


==========================================================================
The paper, published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, incorporates results from DNA testing of more than 4,000 African elephant
tusks from 49 different ivory seizures made in 12 African nations over
a 17-year period.

Exposing the connections among separate ivory seizures -- made at African
and Asian ports sometimes thousands of miles apart -- will likely boost evidence against the criminals arrested for elephant poaching and ivory smuggling, and strengthen prosecutions of the responsible transnational criminal organizations, according to lead author Samuel Wasser, a UW
professor of biology and director of the Center for Environmental Forensic Science, whose group developed the genetic tools behind this work.

"These methods are showing us that a handful of networks are behind
a majority of smuggled ivory, and that the connections between these
networks are deeper than even our previous research showed," said Wasser.

Illegal ivory trade -- along with habitat loss, climate change and other factors -- has decimated the two elephant species in Africa. Although
ivory seizures by authorities come from elephants that have already been slaughtered, the tusks can provide valuable information by illuminating
the poaching, shipment activities and connectivity of traffickers.

Previous work by Wasser and his collaborators -- published in 2018 in
the journal Science Advances -- identified tusks from the same elephant
that were separated and smuggled in different shipments prior to being
seized by law enforcement. Finding both tusks from the same individual
linked those seizures to the same trafficking networks. Those efforts
indicated that, from 2011 to 2014, cartels tended to smuggle ivory out
of three African ports: Mombasa, Kenya; Entebbe, Uganda; and Lome', Togo.



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In this new endeavor, Wasser and his colleagues expanded their DNA
analysis and testing regimen to also identify tusks of elephants that
were close relatives - - parents and offspring, full siblings and half-siblings. Adding close relatives expands the scope of the effort,
Wasser said.

"If you're trying to match one tusk to its pair, you have a low chance
of a match. But identifying close relatives is going to be a much more
common event, and can link more ivory seizures to the same smuggling
networks," said Wasser.

The team tested this expanded protocol on 4,320 tusks -- from both forest elephants, Loxodonta cyclotis, and savannah elephants, Loxodonta africana
- - from 49 separate large shipments totaling 111 metric tons of ivory,
all seized from 2002 to 2019. Results showed that a majority of these
shipments could be linked based on matching tusks either from the same individual or from close relatives.

"Identifying close relatives indicates that poachers are likely going
back to the same populations repeatedly -- year after year -- and tusks
are then acquired and smuggled out of Africa on container ships by the
same criminal network," said Wasser. "This criminal strategy makes it
much harder for authorities to track and seize these shipments because of
the immense pressure they are under to move large volumes of containers
quickly through ports," said Wasser.

The genetic data show that a handful of interconnected smuggling networks
are likely behind most large ivory shipments, most often exported from
ports in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. By expanding the analysis to identify
tusks from close relatives, the team could also link seizures from a
dozen countries in Central and West Africa, stretching from Ivory Coast
on the Atlantic Ocean to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.



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The larger analysis also can track how smuggling networks shifted their operations to different ports over time: from Tanzania in the early 2000s;
then to Kenya and Uganda; and, most recently, to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In West Africa, a temporal shift occurred from
Togo to Nigeria.

"By linking individual seizures, we're laying out whole smuggling networks
that are trying to get these tusks off the continent," said Wasser.

The criminals behind one ivory seizure would have been prosecuted
solely for that seizure. But the genetic evidence by Wasser and his team
could strengthen investigations and prosecutions by linking responsible transnational criminal organizations to multiple seizures -- leading to
more severe penalties.

Co-authors are Charles Wolock, a UW doctoral student in biostatistics;
John Brown III with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; UW biology research scientists Mary Kuhner, Yves Hoareau, Eunjin Jeon and Zofia Kaliszewska; Kin- Lan Han, a former UW researcher who is currently a
geneticist with the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service; Chris Morris with SeeJ-Africa in Nairobi,
Kenya; Ryan Horwitz, who was at the University of Michigan and is now
a UW research scientist; Anna Wong and Charlene J. Fernandez with the
National Parks Board of Singapore; and Moses Otiende with the Kenya
Wildlife Service.

The research was funded by the Paul and Yaffe Maritz Family Foundation,
the Wildlife Conservation Network, the Elephant Crisis Fund, the
U.N. Development Program, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the
Woodtiger Fund, the Wildcat Foundation, the U.S. Department of State,
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, HSI, the World Bank, the U.N. Office
on Drugs and Crime, the National Institute of Justice and the National Institutes of Health.

special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Washington. Original
written by James Urton. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Map_of_smuggling_operations_and_tusks_from_an_ivory_seizure ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Samuel K. Wasser, Charles J. Wolock, Mary K. Kuhner, John E. Brown,
Chris
Morris, Ryan J. Horwitz, Anna Wong, Charlene J. Fernandez, Moses Y.

Otiende, Yves Hoareau, Zofia A. Kaliszewska, Eunjin Jeon,
Kin-Lan Han, Bruce S. Weir. Elephant genotypes reveal the size
and connectivity of transnational ivory traffickers. Nature Human
Behaviour, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01267-6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220214111746.htm

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