Police in the Zambezi Region apprehended a 37-year-old man found in possession of 24 elephant tusks during a joint operation with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism last night.

The tusks are alleged to have come from Botswana, where the elephants were poached, and entered Namibia through the Batubaja Area in Linyanti Constituency.

All 24 tusks were found loaded into a vehicle with an expired disc licence driven by a suspect who was allegedly called to provide transport after the car in which they were transported initially ran out of fuel.

Twelve elephant tail hairs used to make bracelets were also found together with the tusks.

Police Commander for the Zambezi Region, Commissioner Andreas Shilelo, who was part of the operation, told nbc News at Liselo Checkpoint that seven Zambian nationals evaded arrest and are still on the run.

"The area they crossed from, the area of Batubaja, Kwando River, is where they crossed when they went and when they came back, so we now operate on intelligence-led information; that's the only way to get hold of them, so that is why we got it right, and we will continue pursuing others, not only this one but there are others."

Commissioner Shilelo is calling on residents of the region to report suspicious movements of people they do not know in their areas to the police and Indunas.

He cautioned that law enforcement will not allow Namibia to be used as a transit for criminal activities, either by Namibians themselves or foreign nationals.

In a similar incident on the same night, one Zambian national was arrested in possession of two elephant tusks at Mbilajwe Village.

This brings the total number of elephant tasks confiscated in one night to 509 kilogrammes.