4 arrested in Japan for alleged sale of ivory as mammoth tusks
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese police have arrested four people for allegedly selling at an online auction elephant tusks as mammoth tusks to evade a trade ban, police said Wednesday.
Nobumasa Daigo, a 58-year-old executive of Daigo Ivory Co. that processes and sells ivory products, and three other family members who work for the company based in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo were arrested Monday on suspicion of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act that prohibits misleading labeling of goods.
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, which led the investigation, suspects the company annually sold elephant tusks and ivory products worth around 100 million yen ($695,000) by labelling them as coming from mammoths, an extinct species.
The four were arrested on suspicion of selling such products totaling some 126,500 yen to four male customers via an auction site between October 2022 and November 2023, police said, adding the case came to light after a tip from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The suspects have admitted to the allegations, according to the police.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention, bans in principle international trade in ivory to thwart the threat of poaching of elephants.
Elephant tusks have been traded under the guise of mammoth tusks as they are hard to distinguish, according to environmental organization the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund.
In Japan, commercial trade in elephant tusks is allowed if they are certified by a state-backed organization as legally obtained tusks.
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