Kenyan Customs Officers revealed to have seized about four tones (8,600 11b) of ivory hidden inside sacks of sesame seeds.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) also said more than 1,600 pieces of ivory, worth $1.4m (£712,000), were found in Mombasa in two consignments bound for Turkey.

KWS's Arthur Tuda disclosed that the ivory was found during two separate searches on different days at Mombasa port.

According to the comment of one of the customs officers, smugglers were increasingly shipping tusks through countries not normally associated with demand for ivory.

It was also revealed that the ivory came through the Kenya-Uganda border stashed in sacks and hidden in two 4ft (12m) containers.

Kenya Revenue Authority official Fatma Yusuf said both consignments were disguised in a similar manner.

However the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) banned the trade in ivory in 1989, but poaching has increased in recent time across sub-Saharan Africa with criminal gangs slaughtering elephants for ivory markets in Asia.