HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — State-controlled media say authorities in Vietnam have seized 2.4 tons of elephant tusks illegally imported from Africa.

The Laborer newspaper says customs officials in Ho Chi Minh City discovered the tusks on Monday in a container shipped from Mozambique which had been declared cowhide.

The newspaper said Wednesday that the tusks were worth an estimated $4.9 million on the black market.

Customs officials were not immediately available for comment.

In 2009, authorities in the northern port city of Hai Phong confiscated nearly 7 tons of elephant tusks smuggled from Tanzania in the country's biggest such seizure.

The tusks were to be used for jewelry and home decorations.

Vietnam bans the hunting of the country's dwindling elephant population, which poachers value highly for their tusks.