Toni and his dog Rokka hounded ivory smugglers in Tanzania – "We are in great danger"
In Zanzibar Toni Lahtinen and his dogs ran into corruption and lost the support of officials.
Tämä artikkeli on julkaistu suomeksi 3. elokuuta 2017. This article has been published in Finnish earlier in August.
The project could not have had a more auspicious start. In the morning of their first day at work, Toni Lahtinen ordered the dog to sniff at items in the cargo terminal and he immediately marked a box. Inside it were spoons made of bone.
Lahtinen showed the customs officers at the Zanzibar International Airport how to draw up a confiscation record. He also requested that the spoons be sent to a laboratory to be tested. Only testing would tell if the bone had come from an elephant or some other animal.
Lahtinen’s Team Rokka had come to the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar to catch ivory smugglers and to teach local officials how to train dogs to find ivory – even when it was hidden among scrap metal in cargo containers.
They arrived in Zanzibar in May 2016 to carry out a three-month pilot project that would continue into the foreseeable future, if successful.
Discovering the spoons pleased Lahtinen. The Chinese’ craving for status items made of African elephants’ tusks is threatening to drive the species to extinction and Lahtinen was determined to fight against illegal ivory trafficking. Now the Zanzibari officials would lend him an ear.
At the core of Team Rokka are Toni Lahtinen and his spouse, Detection Dog Trainer Maija Hietanen, and their dogs Rokka, Kippari and Halo.
For the operation in Zanzibar, they were joined by two dogs from mainland Tanzania, trained by Lahtinen, the dogs’ handlers and two local policemen.
During the past year Team Rokka had participated in the capture of several significant ivory traffickers in mainland Tanzania. The developmental aid initiative created by Lahtinen was showered with praise and publicity, but he was hungry for more challenges.
Zanzibar, known both as a vacation paradise and a legendary smugglers’ den, began to draw Lahtinen’s attention. He arranged with the Chief of Tanzanian Police Dog and Horse Unit, Egyne Emmanuel, that Team Rokka would start to operate on the inadequately overseen island.
Lahtinen’s work permit in Tanzania was about to expire, but he applied for a new, cost-free one to extend it. This was exceptional, because usually non-governmental organisations pay the Tanzanian government for their work permits. When he arrived in Zanzibar his application was still stuck in the wheels of bureaucracy, but this did not worry him, since Emmanuel assured the permit had backing on a ministry level.
Lahtinen prepared for the project by making two trips to Zanzibar. He met with the local police and customs officers at their workplaces as well as socially to raise confidence in the local officials. When the operation in Zanzibar began, he was already familiar with the island and knew some of the local people.
Lahtinen feared for his life.
All seemed to be well until the second day at the airport. First the officers at the training session proved to be unexpectedly indifferent. Then other oddities caught his eye.
Carriers sometimes took luggage straight from the airplane to the VIP gate, where the owners came to pick them up. Because the luggage did not go through the cargo area, customs officials had no chance to inspect them. Cargo goods were transferred out of the plane and past the checkpoint, too.
To top it off, it turned out that the customs and tax officials do not monitor the airport round the clock.
In the evening that same day, Lahtinen’s trusted man brought him alarming news. In the morning briefing, the airport safety personnel had been instructed to prevent the detection dog team’s operation.
On the next morning, a string of events was set in motion that caused Lahtinen to learn shocking things about the Tanzanian administration and had him fearing for his life.
The previous year had been a great success.
When Lahtinen and his troops arrived in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, in May 2015, they were well received. The working conditions were not ideal, but Team Rokka was appointed important tasks and given free rein to act.
Before Lahtinen introduced new methods, the Tanzanian Police Dog Unit had trained dogs with brutal methods and the facilities were far from ideal. The unit’s dogs were mainly used for patrolling and none of them were trained to detect ivory.
Lahtinen ordered the construction of a top-notch kennel and showed by his example that dogs learn better from positive reinforcement than punishment. Thanks to him, six of the unit’s pups learned to sniff out ivory.
The unit’s chief, Emmanuel, was dedicated to the project despite the difficult conditions.
“Our relationship was brotherly and very close. He helped me to find a flat and I helped him when a policeman fell off the kennel roof and died. Transportation of the deceased to his home village for burial needed funding.”
”The special forces’ boys ran back and forth wearing balaclavas and hefting assault rifles.”
Team Rokka began their criminal-busting career right from the top.
In August 2015, National and Transnational serious Crimes Investigation Unit asked Lahtinen to participate on an ivory tracing operation. Lahtinen and Rokka were to inspect the properties of Yang Feng, a Chinese woman who had lived in Tanzania since 1975 and was extremely well-connected.
“It was a fierce day. Temperatures were approaching 40 degrees Celsius and we worked for ten hours. The special forces’ boys ran back and forth wearing balaclavas and hefting assault rifles. It was essential to keep calm, so Rokka would not get nervous”, Lahtinen reminisces.
Finally, in a restaurant owned by Yang, Rokka identified a couple of suitcases that smelled of ivory. Later the investigation revealed that Yang had run her operations from that restaurant.
Yang was arrested and soon gained the nickname “Queen of Ivory”. She was charged with smuggling over 700 tusks. They are valued at over 2 million euros.
Soon after that three Chinese men travelling from Tanzania were captured at Zurich Airport in Switzerland. They were carrying ivory in no less than 14 suitcases. The Tanzanian special forces suspected that Li Ling Ling, wife of one the captured men and living in Dar es Salaam, was involved in the case.
“We were quickly called to her property. Rokka went through the place and marked a band saw. I told the investigators to open it up. Inside was a small amount of dust.”
The laboratory confirmed it to be ivory. Charges were raised against Mrs Li, also.
Then came Rokka’s most famous feat.
In October 2015, the Finnish dog detected ivory in the car of Eastern Africa’s most sought-after poacher, Boniface Matthew Mariango.
The notorious poacher is nicknamed “Shetani”, the Devil. His arrest is captured in both the Finnish Broadcasting Company TV series “Ivory dog” and the award-winning American documentary “The Ivory Game”.
“It was quite a media event. Sweating Shetani was put in irons and Leonardo DiCaprio‘s production crew for the documentary as well as scores of special forces’ men were present”, Lahtinen recalls.
Rokka was free to begin his work after the freshly arrested Shetani had been escorted away from the vicinity of his vehicle at Lahtinen’s request. Within moments the dog smelled ivory in the trunk of the car. A hidden compartment was discovered containing tiny bits of ivory chipped from tusks.
“Information on Shetani had been gathered for a long time and officials already had a pretty good idea of how he operated. Nonetheless, catching him in possession of the goods was crucial for ensuring that he had no chance of talking his way out of it.”
In March 2017, Shetani was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted smuggling of 800,000 euros worth of ivory. However, that is probably just the tip of the iceberg, since he is known to have headed a poaching and smuggling syndicate spanning five countries.
Yet more arrests followed and Lahtinen’s hunger grew.
Towards the end of 2015, Toni Lahtinen turned his gaze to Zanzibar, an autonomous region of Tanzania. The islands’ mostly Muslim populace lead their lives fairly independently of Tanzanian central administration.
When Lahtinen heard that a recently arrested Zanzibari drug lord had been in possession of five passports under different names, he was finally convinced that the island officials were deeply corrupt. Lahtinen decided to “snatch their loot”.
As their third working day dawned in Zanzibar, Lahtinen had strong misgivings. Last night he had been told that some people intended to make Team Rokka’s life on the island as difficult as possible.
The problems began immediately when the team arrived at the airport.
“We were stopped and asked to produce a parking permit. We had to buy it from the adjacent booth. It was no help that I had badge granted by the Tanzanian Police stating that I had their mandate to work as a trainer, nor that I had four Tanzanian police officers with me.”
The obstructions continued. Airport personnel forced Team Rokka members to walk through a metal detector and a thorough security check was performed on each of them.
Eventually the team got to their work station, but only a moment later Emmanuel called from Dar es Salaam with an announcement. Due to a demand by customs and tax officials, the detection dog operations must cease at the airport. Lahtinen left and took off to his base in Zanzibar by car.
“Right before I arrived, I noticed that I was being followed by a vehicle with 4 or 5 men in it. They were watching my house. I wrote down the registration number and found out later that the same car was usually parked in front of the President’s departure terminal at the airport.”
Emmanuel began negotiations with the Zanzibar officials, while Lahtinen waited.
After two weeks, their patience was rewarded.
“The vice president of Zanzibar announced that all officials must support Team Rokka.”
The gesture was largely symbolic. Zanzibar’s administration has no direct command over the various officials responsible for safety on the island. Formally they are under the rule of Tanzanian central administration, but in reality, they act fairly independently.
Nevertheless, the vice president’s announcement had some effect. Team Rokka was able to continue their work, now at Zanzibar Port.
“I vividly recall the first day we worked there, and a nervous-looking man in a suit turned up at the gate. He introduced himself as the chief of customs at the Port of Zanzibar. I said, now I got hold of the right person, we have come here to help you.”
Chief of Customs Ali Fum Ali told that he had been working at the port for ten years.
“I asked him what the key smuggled articles in Zanzibar were. He shook his head and said there had been no crime in years. According to him, the customs would have caught at least one smuggler, if there had been any.”
“If a man cannot look you in the eye, he has a problem.”
Lahtinen understood that he was exactly where he should be. He asked the chief of customs to nominate a contact person for Team Rokka from among his subordinates.
“He said he had just the right man for me, Mohamed Mashaka. That day he took me to his office and called Mashaka and a couple of familiar policemen there. From time to time they spoke Swahili with each other even though we had agreed to use English. There was something shifty going on there.”
“After the meeting, I asked one of the policemen what they had talked about. According to him, the chief had said that they need not say a word about that one unfortunate incident.”
Mashaka left a strange impression, too.
“If a man cannot look you in the eye, he has a problem.”
Lahtinen began to ask more questions from people he deemed right. Someone told him that contrary to what the chief of customs had claimed, there had recently been a case of smuggling at the port. In the evening, Lahtinen searched for more information on the internet.
“And there it was: Mashaka was accused of complicity in attempted smuggling.”
In November 2013, the President’s Special Forces had confiscated nearly three tonnes of ivory hidden among mussels in a cargo container headed to Asia from the Port of Zanzibar.
Six Tanzanian officials had been charged with possession of illegal goods worth 2 million Euros. Among them was Mashaka, who had been responsible for inspecting the cargo containers.
The process had been considerably delayed. The officials involved had been under arrest pending trial for two years, but they were released on bail in early 2016.
“Mashaka had returned to work just before our arrival.”
The fact that a man who was on trial for possessing illegal ivory was now in charge of inspecting smugglers astounded Lahtinen. It shocked also to many of the local officials, who whispered to Lahtinen that another official who had been charged in same case had returned to office earlier that spring.
Then dawned his second day at the port. Team Rokka completed their first search.
“Soon afterwards I was told that by the Zanzibar police commissioner’s command, shipments containing foodstuffs may not be searched. They referred to Islam: food is sacred and a dog may not sniff at it. I tried to explain that the dog does not touch the food at all, it stays on the other side, but it was in vain.”
A day later, the police commissioner had a new order: for the time being, Team Rokka could not operate at the port nor at the airport.
Lahtinen decided to tilt against windmills even though he could guess the outcome. He requested an audience with the second and third highest police chiefs – and was granted it.
“For the heck of it, I asked that as I am not familiar with Tanzanian legislation, could they tell me whether an official who is suspected of gross smuggling and who had been caught red-handed on duty, could carry on performing his duties while the investigation was going on? They replied ‘On no account, why do you ask?’”
“I told them they employ two men at the harbour who are suspected of complicity in ivory smuggling. They got wild-eyed and said that they needed to discuss this with their superior.”
Lahtinen was shown to the office of Police Commissioner Hamdani Omar Makame.
“He listened and watched me for a time and said: ‘Is that so, ha ha, how unfortunate.’ At that point, I realised they were all in on it and I left.”
Lahtinen contacted Emmanuel again, hoping he could still exert some influence. Besides that, there was nothing to do but wait.
Five days later things began to heat up.
“Emergency. Call me.”
“I was out shopping when I got a call from our teams’ dog trainer in training. He told me that 4 to 5 men had tried to force their way into our property on the pretext that it was on sale. He refused to let them enter. Later on, the owner of the house confirmed that it had been a hoax.”
Lahtinen was alarmed and called Emmanuel. He did not pick up.
Lahtinen sent a text message: “Emergency. Call me.”
After a while, Emmanuel replied he was in a meeting and asked Lahtinen to explain the matter via SMS.
Lahtinen replied immediately: “We are in great danger!”
“After that I did not hear from Emmanuel before the next day. Until then, he had always acted as my chaperone in all situations. I understood that I was on my own now. I realised that if he stands me up when our safety is at risk, he must have lost his sway.”
By then Lahtinen and Hietanen were truly afraid. Lahtinen decided to call an investigator friend he had learned to trust.
“He told me not to eat anywhere unfamiliar, since they would certainly try to poison me. I knew things that put my life on the line.”
On the recommendation of his trusted man, Lahtinen got familiar policemen armed with assault rifles to guard the house around the clock.
During the following weeks Lahtinen continued to teach local dog trainers in his home yard in Zanzibar. Gradually he began to accept that productive detection dog work was no longer possible on the island. There had been no word of his work permit, either.
“I felt like a tsunami had rushed over me.”
Team Rokka left Zanzibar midway through July and travelled to Dar es Salaam. Lahtinen went to shake hands with Emmanuel. The meeting was formal and polite.
Team Rokka returned to Finland.
But Lahtinen would not be Lahtinen, if he had not persistently inquired after the work permit he was promised so long ago.
When Emmanuel replied in the beginning of August 2016, saying that no, it seems that it will not be granted, Lahtinen began to see that the game was up.
A year has passed since those events, but certain moments Lahtinen recalls very clearly.
“When I was walking the streets of Zanzibar and realised how deep the corruption runs and how little value a life has there, I felt like a tsunami had rushed over me. I felt really tiny.”
Mohamed Mashaka and another officer who were charged with possession of illegal ivory still continue to work in the customs at the Port of Zanzibar. The investigation into their case ended only last year and the ensuing trial is still under way. The trials of Li Ling Ling and “Queen if Ivory” Yang Feng Glan are also unfinished.
The Tanzanians have not been eager to respond to Finnish journalists’ attempts to contact them. The Zanzibar Police Commissioner, Hamdani Omar Makame, did not wish to answer questions on the phone nor via email.
The Zanzibar Chief of Customs, Ali Fum Ali, explained on the phone that Mashaka was chosen as Team Rokka’s contact person because of his solid experience. The call was cut off when the matter of Mashaka’s charges was raised.
A one-man development project
WWF thought the detection dog project was too dangerous and expensive.
Toni Lahtinen, ever fond of animals, began his journey to help the African elephants in 2012, when he resigned from his job as a police officer after nine years of service. Drug crime investigations were replaced with work in animal protection efforts in Romania, Thailand and Australia. His new life was ascetic, but it felt meaningful.
The next year Lahtinen woke to see that poaching was threatening to drive the elephants to extinction. He contacted PAMS, a conservation foundation active in Tanzania.
“I exchanged probably a thousand emails with Wayne Lotter, the head of the foundation, and came to the conclusion that detection dog operation is the most efficient way I can participate in anti-poaching efforts.”
The work began in 2012. Lahtinen searched for information on how to train a dog to detect ivory and heard it would be very difficult, since the hard bone matter does not give off much of a smell. In addition, he began to build a collaboration with WWF Finland.
The following year Lahtinen began to train a 7-week-old Labrador retriever and named him Rokka. In slightly over six months, the dog learned to trace ivory.
Lahtinen lived frugally, funded the project out of his own pocket and continued negotiations with WWF about beginning operations in Tanzania. The excitement was mutual and in early 2014 the organisation hired him to prepare a project that was to be carried out with funding from the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The working name of the project was Team Rokka, but Lahtinen did not want to count on only one dog. He trained another dog, a Jack Russel Terrier called Kippari, to find ivory.
Lahtinen had planned to travel to Tanzania as a WWF partner in the summer of 2014, but it did not work out. In late spring, the conservation organisation decided not to undertake the project on the grounds of Tanzania being dangerous.
Later WWF Finland justified pulling out of the project by also claiming that it would have been too expensive. The project would have them cost a bit over 50,000 euros per year.
“So they have no resources? Just last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted them several million euros for three years of development projects”, Lahtinen huffs.
Lahtinen continued to train his dogs without pay, used credit to travel to Tanzania to get to know local officials and founded an association bearing the name Team Rokka. In 2015, he began to collect donations from both businesses and people.
Team Rokka began their work in Tanzania in May 2015, despite having only nominal funding. Lahtinen believed that all would turn out all right.
In the end, the Finnish embassy in Dar es Salaam played a key role by awarding PAMS Foundation a grant of nearly 100,000 euros, of which 30,000 euros was channelled to Team Rokka. Private supporters made considerable donations, too.
Team Rokka’s detection dog programme was ultimately carried out with a budget of 80,000 euros. It is not much for a project that was long in the making and whose implementation on another continent took two years.
“Our last flat in Dar es Salaam, for instance, was located so far in the suburbs that I had to leave for work at 5 am. And as the flat was plagued by constant blackouts, mould grew all over the place and faeces floated out of the toilet and onto the floor, so we ended up sleeping in the car. It was hell.”
“I paid myself daily allowances and 1,200 euros in monthly salary, but only for nine months. I would have deserved better pay, but it was not possible. Maija did not get paid at all.’
Lahtinen currently lives in Sysmä, Southern Finland. He is looking for backers for a new project to expose ivory smugglers in Asia.
The Chinese are threatening elephants
In Africa, depending on the country, elephant hunting is either prohibited or strongly regulated. The elephant population has shrunk to a tenth of its former size, as in the 1940’s a population of 3–5 million individuals still roamed the African savannahs. Today, approximately 30,000 elephants are poached each year.
In the 2000’s, prosperous Chinese have become the single greatest threat to the elephants. The wealthy Chinese can afford to give out hundreds of thousands of euros for elephant tusks or items made of them.
In the last few years, the situation of the African elephants had started to look a little brighter. China’s economic growth has slowed down and the Chinese’ increased awareness of the looming extinction of elephants have cut demand for ivory.
The Chinese government has woken up as well. Next year, the trade of ivory products will become entirely illegal. The share of legal ivory trade, however, amounts to approximately only a tenth of the illegal trade in China. How strictly China will enforce the new law and intervene in smuggling will be crucial.