'It was astounding, what we found.'
The authors of the study, University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser and Nairobi Homeland Security Investigations assistant attaché John Brown III, were able to use previous work that identified tusks from the same elephant -- as well as close relatives -- found in different seizures, therefore revealing links between those shipments and their movements across the country.A young bull elephant moves towards a swamp at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy's in Meru on July 30, 2021.
"It was astounding, what we found," Wasser told reporters."Literally, we had dozens of shipments that were simply connected by multiple familial matches." The data also showed how"big, transnational" criminal networks may be behind the majority of these crimes and the strategic movements of criminal networks between ports in Africa, Wasser said, describing previous efforts to identify these networks as playing"whack-a-mole."