{"id":48732,"date":"2013-11-08T10:25:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T06:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=48732"},"modified":"2013-11-08T10:25:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T06:25:18","slug":"global-smuggling-ring-busted-after-12-tons-of-elephant-tusks-worth-62million-is-found-by-customs-officers-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=48732","title":{"rendered":"Global smuggling ring busted after 12 tons of elephant tusks worth \u00a362million is found by customs officers in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/12-tons-of-smuggled-ivory-China.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-48729\" alt=\"12 tons of smuggled ivory- China\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/12-tons-of-smuggled-ivory-China.jpg\" width=\"578\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/12-tons-of-smuggled-ivory-China.jpg 964w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/12-tons-of-smuggled-ivory-China-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/12-tons-of-smuggled-ivory-China-469x300.jpg 469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 578px) 100vw, 578px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Customs officials have smashed a global smuggling ring after they discovered 12 tons of smuggled ivory worth \u00a362million in China.<\/p>\n<p>The 3,188 pieces of elephant tusks were found in Xiamen city and have an estimated value of 603 million Yuan on the black market.<\/p>\n<p>Officials named one of the &#8216;masterminds&#8217; as a Fujian native called Chen who was known to customs since 2011 and operates between China and Africa for his licensed ivory shop, according to the South China Morning Post.<\/p>\n<p>Several members of his group were also arrested and almost 2,000 kilograms of ivory was seized in August.<\/p>\n<p>Ivory is seen as a symbol of wealth and status in China, and has become increasingly popular in recent years with the growth of the wealthy middle class.<\/p>\n<p>According to a recent survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, 70 per cent of Chinese people did not know that elephants are killed for ivory products.<\/p>\n<p>The survey revealed that most thought elephants lost tusks in the same way humans lose teeth.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news conference on Tuesday that China was committed to working with the international community to protect wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. is the world&#8217;s second largest consumer of ivory products behind China.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Customs officials have smashed a global smuggling ring after they discovered 12 tons of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,137],"tags":[3633],"class_list":["post-48732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-12-tons-of-elephant-tusks","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}