In sweeping raids across southern Africa police have seized $1 million worth of rhino horns and ivory and shut down an illegal ivory factory in a operation coordinated by international police agency Interpol.

The raids which took place in Botwana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia were focused on markets and shops and resulted in the arrests of 41 people said Interpol in a statement.

“Taking these illegal items off the market is just the first step,” said Peter Younger, manager of Interpol’s Africa wildlife programme.

“Information gathered as part of this operation will also enable law enforcement, both in Africa and abroad, to identify smuggling routes and eventually to further arrests.”

Rhino poaching reached a record high worldwide in 2009 say the WWF, leaving just 18,000 rhino remaining on the continent. Likewise where once millions of elephant roamed sub-Saharan Africa today the region is home to 690,000 elephants at the most.

Poaching activity is fed by the demand for ivory in Asia and political instability in Africa, a combination that encourages the formation of international crime rings, say wildlife experts.

“The impact of wildlife crime is wide-ranging,” said Younger.

“People are threatened with violence, law enforcement officers have been killed while carrying out their duties, and there is the wider economic impact on a country and therefore the livelihoods of ordinary people.

Traditional Chinese medicine espouses the belief that Rhino horn can cure arthritis and fever, where as ivory is used for the creation of ornaments such as in carving dagger handles.