BEIJING: Chinese police seized 600kg of elephant tusks and carved ivory products worth about 22 million yuan after a crackdown on a mainland smuggling gang.
The leader of the gang, Chen Haiyuan, was caught by police at the start of a 12-month investigation, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
He was jailed for 10 and a half years in October after admitting smuggling ivory in Jiangxi province.
Other members of the gang had been handed over to prosecutors and would face trial at a later date, Xinhua said.
Police started their investigation after discovering 22 pieces of illegal handcrafted ivory being transported during a routine road inspection in Jiangxi province in November 2014, Xinhua said.
Three people involved in the transportation and sale of ivory were later arrested, including Chen.
Chen’s detention then led police to carry out a raid on a factory producing ivory products in Fujian province.
They discovered 20 people working to produce more than 500kg of ivory products, Xinhua said.
The Xinhua report did not make clear when the raid took place or if the factory workers were arrested.
Chen was quoted as saying by Xinhua that he had bought 20kg of ivory at a cost of 8,000 yuan per kg while in Shenzhen in 2010.
After finding potential buyers he then took the ivory to Hunan province so it could be carved into various products for sale.
Chen later delivered the ivory products to Fujian and was transporting other items to customers in Jiangxi at the time he was caught by police, the report said.
