By Tove Tupper & Associated Press
 
November 19, 2009
 
ASHLAND, Ore. - An Ashland laboratory played a key role in the arrest of two ivory traffickers in Thailand Monday.
 
The arrests followed a two-year investigation. The two Thai men were arrested in Bangkok on charges of smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops in Thailand that sell jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the United States, authorities said.
 
The National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland is credited with helping solve the case. The lab conducted DNA testing to determine exactly what type of ivory the suspects were trafficking.
 
Forensic scientists helped determine that it was elephant ivory. They then conducted DNA testing to determine that the elephant was African, not Asian. This was important because the two animals are protected in different ways.
 
"Some of the ivory is legal to be sold in certain countries. Other species of elephants are illegal to be sold. And there's a lot of hunting pressure on elephant populations in Africa, and much of it is illicit hunting," Senior Forensic Scientist Mary Burnham Curtis said.
 
The scientist that worked on the case receive both whole tusks and small carved items. The lab ground a piece of the ivory into a powder to extract the DNA. Then performed different tests.