In 2008, while his wife was pregnant, Kazouna Cyprien proposed to Essoula Idriss to carry a hunting expedition for him to get some money to cover the delivery of his wife. During the hunting expedition, they came across a small dead elephant and they removed the two small tusks that they sold to XAF 40,000 (forty thousand). Since the sharing of the money was not satisfactory to all the parties, one informed the Sangha Departmental Directorate of Water and Forests about the illicit circulation of ivory tusks and elements of the directorate came and arrested Kazouna Cyprien and Essoula Idriss and brought them to the state prosecutor.