Criminal Law
DNA Tracing Reveals Illegal Ivory Trafficking Networks
African elephants have drastically dwindled as targets of the illegal ivory trade, but the DNA contained within their tusks is pointing to the very criminal networks that poached them.
Researchers used genetic testing on ivory shipments seized by law enforcement and were able to trace the international crime ring shipping the ivory from Africa.
The team tested more than 4,000 elephant tusks from 49 different seizures, made between 2002 and 2019, across 12 different African countries. The findings published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
