I've been working as a journalist focused on international crime for about the last 20 years. Fifteen of those years, have been spent looking at international wildlife traffickers.

This guy is Lieutenant Awi, he's in Lomé, Togo. The State Department called me and said “Hey, would you give a lecture in West Africa about ivory trafficking?” I said, “Sure.” I flew over, I gave my little talk about how bad it is and everything and the Minister of Security in Togo raises his hand and says “Great speech, kid, but, uh we don't have any elephants here.” I said, “Yes, you... you only have a few elephants, really but you have the second most important thing an ivory trafficker wants. They want an elephant, and they want a way out of Africa. And you've just built, you're just completing the second largest port in Sub-Saharan Africa. You've got ships lined up just off your coast wanting to use your port. It may not be now but you're going to be an outlet for wildlife trafficking.” This guy was in the audience. He didn't say anything to me. He's a narcotics officer he went back to the port where he worked. He took the scanner and instead of scanning what comes in to Togo he scanned what went out. Five months later, he made the largest ivory seizure in African history, post the ivory ban. Four tons of ivory. It was hidden in timber like that.

Here are the guys that man the frontline. These are the rangers in Chad. This is our most recent story. Because of this exploratory work we did in Togo I came to understand that there was a... there was a different story happening in Central Africa. In East Africa, ivory trafficking is probably what you might guess. It's organized crime, it's poachers on the ground, corrupt governments. Central Africa; Completely different. It's a war zone. These are the rangers. These six men are dead. They were on an anti-poaching mission on Heban Hill in 2012 in Chad, Zakouma National Park when Janjaweed came in they were in their morning prayers and killed them all. Idriss Adoum... uh, second from the left, you should look at because that boy in the brown shirt is the son of the man killed who is now a ranger.

This woman was attacked by the Lord's Resistance Army which cut her, she's had multiple surgeries since. Cut her ears off, her lips off, and her nose. This is Emmanuel de Merode. He and his men were Explorers of the Year here at National Geographic. Emmanuel runs the park at Virunga. The most courageous man on the planet. He was shot last year, ambushed... for his work to preserve Virunga National Park. Innocent, who works with Emmanuel. A National Geographic Emerging Explorer. These tusks were seized from FDLR. The Rwandans, Hutus have come into and live in Virunga National Park and exploit that park and have killed a number of rangers this year.

These guys are, a part of a force the African Union force dedicated to going after Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army. Kony, you... I'm sure needs no introduction but Kony is one of the worst terrorists in the world, he's... the only thing that really protects him is that his only victims are African. We spent time with this team and these are Malinois shepherds. They call them Mali-gators because they are relentless. And they train them, you know, they don't like to talk about it but they train them to attack men as among their duties. And they have these big padded suits and... and they hit you and they just, boom! It's amazing to feel the power of these dogs. And I said, “Can I wear one of those suits?” And they said, “What?” ”Yeah, I mean, they protect you, right? I mean, it would just, it'd be... a little frightening but...” And then they described, “Well...Okay, you can wear it. But they,

I just need to warn you there's two weak spots in the suit. One is in the armpit, there's a flap. And then the other is in the crotch. And the dogs have discovered that over time...” So, I did not do that.

These are anti-Lord's Army Resistance army rangers. This is all the more significant because these men don't know how to swim. And they go out every day, this-- This guy is a defector from the Lord's Resistance Army. Michael Onen, beaten by the men who kidnapped him. Here's what it's like to be up close and personal with a victim. In this village, I meet this boy, Emmanuel. “What was your experience with the LRA?” “I killed people. That's what I did.” “So, one group was for killing people. And one group was for killing elephants, or...” “And I'm here to ask about elephants which I know, for him, why are you talking about elephants.” And he says, “I wasn't part of the animal killing effort.” “Did you see elephants being killed?” “There was killing, killing, killing, he said to me.” “I understand, I am very sorry.” From his perspective, I didn't get it. This is all about killing. That was, I think, the hardest day of this last project to, to talk to him and have to ask those questions because that was my assignment and to see what this had done to him. This was a story about elephants. I had to ask about elephants. And it's all because of those two teeth. So, let's go after these people. Let's be creative. Let's move forward.

This is George Dante, one of the world's best taxidermists. I hired him to build me fake elephant tusks. Then I had an engineer in California build me a satellite based GPS system. And I laid them inside those tusks. That's the result, you tell me which one's real. I had tried for three years to get this done and then I did a story on taxidermy, and met George he's the American Museum of Natural History's taxidermist as well. And, I said, “George...,” I didn't tell him what I wanted. I said, “You know, have you ever done elephants tusks?” “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” “Can you do it, where it has the feel?” He says, “What do you mean feel?” “I mean If you picked one up...we want to, like, we have like a... 'please touch me museum'

in mind we're going to do at National Geographic.” He says, “Oh, okay, yeah, maybe.” And I say, I said, “The balance needs to be right. And we need the Schreger lines, George,” these-- When you cut a tusk, it's like rings on a tree there are these little lines in there. And I said, “George, we need those and if you bang one together, it's gotta sound like a tusk.” He took months. And he... I mean, these things are perfect. So, now let's get to Africa. Here's how it goes. 

Bryan Christy: I'm facing five or more years in Tanzanian prison. “Unfortunately your expert refuses to look at the x-ray.” “Hello, this is Brian Christy from National Geographic. Could you have Chief Woody call me urgently?” I'm in Dar-Es-Salaam. I'm under arrest and taken to a detention center. “Who is in-- charge of But you're going to make me sleep on the floor here tonight?” “In the cells...” “Okay.” In the morning, Senior Tanzanian Wildlife experts arrive. These are the authorities who will check out my story. “So, inside is a hollow... a partially hollow cavity with a radio transmitter...” When they finally said You know what, we believe you. You could feel the tension release from the room. They looked at me and said, “You're free to go.”

Those guys, um... a bunch of them are my Facebook friends now. We put our tusks in Central Africa in the black market, and we watched them, using an iPad. And they could've gone east to the ports of Kenya or Tanzania they could've gone west to Togo which we had just recently seen as a new departure point. Ours went the most violent direction. And they went to this area of Darfur. Called Kafia Kingi. And LRA, Lord's Resistance Army defector after defector said That's where Joseph Kony is. And when we smuggle-- when we kill elephants we're taking the ivory up to this little corner in Darfur called-- they call it K-2, Kafia Kingi. And so that was the new face, for me, of the ivory story. The violence, the terrorism behind ivory. And I was excited about telling this story we told it as the September cover story. We told it as the launch, new launch of the Explorer series Warlords of Ivory, and as a result you give the world the opportunity to ask does it want this? Does it want this? Every story is a gift. These stories are my gift to these animals that can't speak and to these men and women who pay so much and your gift to them can be to share this story. Thank you very much.