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Leipzig (dpa / sn) - Customs confiscated 20 kilograms of smuggled ivory at Leipzig Airport.
As the main customs office announced on Monday, the prayer beads were in an air freight shipment from the Congo, which was addressed to a recipient in Lebanon.
During the x-ray, the customs officers were puzzled by the diffuse images and opened the package.
They found 210 ivory necklaces.
Because the required documents were missing, the package was confiscated.
The enclosed shipping papers had shown a value of 3200 US dollars for the prayer chains.
"Since it is ivory, it is obvious that the stated value of 3200 dollars does not even come close to reflecting the prices prevailing on the black market," said Heike Wilsdorf, spokeswoman for the main customs office in Dresden.
For one kilogram of ivory, up to several thousand dollars are paid.
"The poaching and the extinction of these great animals are really fueled."
In 2019, the officers of the main customs office seized a total of 960 protected animals and plants or products made from them in 144 cases.
In the previous year there were half as many cases.