The 18 elephants – three males and 15 females ranging in age from six to 25 – were sedated, loaded onto crates and placed on a large cargo plane that arrived in Swaziland at around 7.30am local time on Tuesday.
Underscoring the seriousness of the threat, al-Asiri was then implicated in the creation of two "undetectable" bombs placed on international cargo planes.
Upon arrival in Latakia, the chemicals are placed on cargo ships for removal, said Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the OPCW.
Upon arrival in Latakia, the chemicals are placed on cargo ships for removal, said Michael Luhan, an OPCW spokesman.
Mr. Asiri is also believed to have designed the explosives used in the failed bombing attempt on an airliner over Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009, and packed into printer cartridges and placed on cargo planes in October 2010.
One of several Saudi militants to sneak across the border, Asiri is believed to have designed sophisticated bombs concealed in the wearer's underpants, such as the one carried by the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a flight bound for Detroit in 2009, and devices disguised in printer ink toner cartridges placed on cargo flights bound for the US.
Technically, much emphasis of freight apps' function is placed on cargo-truck matching mechanism.
But several transportation experts say that placing a 100 percent screening requirement on cargo carriers — like the one that now exists for cargo placed on passenger airlines — would cause the system of express air delivery to grind to a halt.
Ships carrying ice needed to be particularly strong and there was a premium placed on recruiting good crews, able to move the cargo quickly to its location before it melted.
Representative Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a member of the House select committee on homeland security, said last week that the administration's failure to order the physical screening of all air cargo placed on passenger planes, as is now done with luggage, was reckless and inexplicable.
