Portobello 'hub for illegal ivory trade'

The shocking truth about London's key role in the international trade in illegal ivory is today laid bare in a damning report.

An investigation found the capital's streets are home to a "thriving and uncontrolled trade" in prohibited ivory from massacred elephants, and that sellers will happily break the law to make a profit.

Portobello market is "awash with dubious ivory", says the International Fund For Animal Welfare in the Elephants On The High Street report.

Investigators found traders in markets and antiques shops sold ivory carvings without the legally required proof they date from before 1947. Not one trader approached had the papers, and some offered to forge them.

One stall holder boasted that huge amounts of new ivory was arriving from China, the biggest exporter of illegal tusks. "It's so easy to smuggle past Customs," he said.

The report says Portobello is the "single major source of this illegal ivory". One investigator was shocked when a Portobello gallery owner invited him to visit Nigeria to view "a lot of big tusks" for sale.

Phyllis Campbell-McRae, IFAW director, said: "Among those who understood the law many offered to break it, or encouraged us to do so."