The stench was intense and a customs officer said the ivory "smelled like death".

BBC: Why such a fuss about extinction?

He was immediately surrounded by a crowd including a policeman, soldiers, a customs officer and reporters.

BBC: News | Europe | Flight re-enactment fails to reach beach

"Report the truth, please, " a Libyan man standing in line told me as a Tunisian customs officer processed my passport last week.

CNN: Libya seen through Gadhafi's keyhole

After the war he worked as a customs and excise officer, settling in Gourock, Inverclyde.

BBC: Scottish artist George Wyllie dies aged 90

After the war and marriage to his beloved Daphne, he worked as a customs and excise officer in Glasgow, Prestwick, and Ireland before settling in Gourock, where his two daughters, Louise and Elaine, were brought up.

BBC: Obituary: George Wyllie

"It smells like a dead body, " the customs officer told me, as we opened a crate of smuggled ivory in the cargo terminal at Bangkok airport earlier this year.

BBC: Saluting 'local heroes of conservation'

The wooden plane, held together with piano wire, was classified as a yacht by the customs officer.

BBC: News | Europe | Flight re-enactment fails to reach beach

In the Customs shed a smart officer in pressed flannels, green military sweater and beret greeted me warmly, pumping my hand.

BBC: Following the Silk Road to the end of China

The latest arrest comes a day after news that the Sun newspaper's Whitehall editor, Clodagh Hartley, Jonathan Hall, a press officer for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and Mr Hall's partner Marta Bukarewicz are to be charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

BBC: New Scotland Yard sign