Police confirmed yesterday the arrest of the suspected mastermind behind ivory trafficking across the East African region.

The Deputy Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Diwani Athumani, told The Citizen by telephone that Kenyan national Feisal Ali Mohammed, 46, was arrested in Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam, on Monday night.

“The suspect is in police custody and is being questioned,” he said. “We are checking to see whether he has links with inter-regional organized crime and if he entered Tanzania legally.”

The head of Interpol in Tanzania, Mr Gustavu Babile, said the suspect was caught after Interpol and Tanzania police force joined forces following a tip-off.

Mr Babile said Mr Mohammed was tracked down to Tanzania following a warrant of arrest issued against him in October, this year, adding that the agency had posted his picture and details on its website.

According to police, Mr Mohammed is the leader of an international poaching syndicate in the region, and is linked with the seizure of 228 tusks and 74 ivory pieces weighing over two tonnes at a motor vehicle warehouse in Tudor, Mombasa, in June, last year.

Interpol last month put Mr Mohammed on a list of nine most wanted suspects linked to crimes against the environment. His arrest was also confirmed by Kenyan authorities.

READ: Interpol goes after wildlife criminals

“Feisal Ali Mohammed was arrested by Interpol officers in Dar es Salaam. He was then booked in Msimbazi Police Station at 10.42pm last night,” Kenya’s director of public prosecutions said in a statement.

It said he is facing charges in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa for “dealing in and possession of elephant tusks” weighing more than two tonnes and equivalent to at least 114 poached elephants, which were found during a raid in June. Two alleged accomplices, Abdul Halim Sadiq and Ghalib Sadiq Kara, were arrested then, but Mohammed managed to escape and has been on the run since.

According to an Interpol source, Mr Mohammed was caught in “a string operation” conducted in collaboration with Tanzanian police.

He is the second of the nine alleged “environmental criminals” listed by Interpol to have been arrested since the Interpol appeal last month. Earlier this month, Zambian national Ben Simasiku was arrested on charges of possessing ivory from Botswana.

READ: Interpol issues arrest warrant for Kenyan businessman over ivory trade

In November, Interpol said the arrest of the suspects would “contribute to the dismantling of transnational organised crime groups which have turned environmental exploitation into a professional business with lucrative revenues.” Ivory is sought after for jewellery and decorative objects and much of it is smuggled to China, where many increasingly wealthy shoppers are buying ivory trinkets as a sign of financial success.

A sharp rise in poaching in Kenya, which is home to an estimated 30,000 elephants and just over a thousand rhinos, has sparked warnings from conservation groups that the government is losing the fight against the slaughter.

Poaching of the African Forest Elephant is a serious issue in southern Tanzania as well as other districts where elephants are free to stray outside national park surveillance. As a result, the population of elephants has decreased by two thirds since the 1950s.

A study conducted by Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (Tawiri) revealed that the number of elephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania indicated a sharp fall by more than 40 per cent in just three years, as poachers increasingly killed the animals for their tusks. The study was conducted in the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park and revealed elephant numbers had plunged to 38,975 in 2009 from 70,406 in 2006.