Sniffer dogs trained in South Africa were used to help combat rhino poaching and the smuggling of elephant tusks in West Africa, it was reported on Saturday.

Two White Rhinos, Mala Mala Reserve, South Africa. [File photo]

With the help of the dogs, police in the West African country of Benin recently uncovered a major drug smuggling operation, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Trained by Mechem, a subsidiary of state arsenal Denel, the dogs were deployed at ports and airfields to counter the growing trade of drugs and illicit substances, the report said.

The dogs were much more effective than any x-ray system and very efficient, said Dr Hannes Slabbert, a veterinary ethnologist at the Mechem training facility in Pretoria.

"We are very proud of our track record, our training and expertise in the field -- and we are also very involved in this rhino poaching," he was quoted as saying.

"We supply dogs to private game reserves and we are working towards supplying quite a few dogs to other entities as well to stop this, so we are not only looking at drugs and explosives but also the rhino poaching and the elephant tusk problem," Slabbert said.

Despite intensified anti-poaching efforts, international syndicates involved in the illegal wildlife trade are becoming more aggressive and sophisticated.

Last year, a record 448 rhinos were killed in South Africa, including 19 black rhinos, a critically endangered species of which fewer than 5,000 remain in the wild.

That is 34 percent more than in 2010, when 333 rhinos were killed, and nearly four times the 122 lost in 2009.

More than 80 rhinos have been lost to poaching in South Africa since the start of this year, including 43 in the Kruger National Park, according to official figures.

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