MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) - Border guards in Russia's Khabarovsk Territory seized 1.5 tonnes of mammoth tusks tentatively estimated at over 50 million rubles.
"Officers of the Russian Federal Security Service's [FSB] border department for the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region thwarted the illicit turnover of paleontological remnants of the mammoth fauna. In the Bikin district of the Khabarovsk Territory, they seized more than 1.5 tonnes of mammoth tusks without documents confirming the legality of the haul," the FSB press center said in a statement on Tuesday.
The tusks packed in polypropylene bags were found in a cache set up under a wooden floor of a nonresidential building.
Their cost has tentatively been estimated at over 50 million rubles.
An inquiry is ongoing. A procedural decision will be adopted based on its results, the press center said.