Officials have confiscated $2 million in elephant ivory from a pair of Diamond District jewelers in what is being touted as one of the biggest seizure of illegal ivory in state history.
Mukesh Gupta, 67, and Johnson Jung-Chien Lu, 56, lived lives of luxury in leafy Westchester suburbs, but it was paid for by the lives of poached, endangered elephants, officials said after the two men pleaded guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to felony wildlife crimes.
Gupta, owner of Raja Jewels at 7 West 45th St., and Lu, owner of New York Jewelry Mart at 26 W. 46th St., will not serve a minute in jail. But they have forfeited their ivory and must pay an additional total of $55,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
“Poachers should not have a market in Manhattan,” DA Cyrus Vance told reporters, noting the tragedy of the magnificent animals being slaughtered for the trade in mass-produced, “unremarkable decorative items.”
A table strewn with seized items, including carved tusks, sculpture, jewelry and other baubles, was displayed for reporters by prosecutors and officials with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the US Fish, Game and Wildlife Service.
The two were guilty only of selling and offering to sell ivory without the necessary permit, their lawyers emphasized. Dealers must display a permit establishing that their ivory was harvested prior to the animals being protected in the ’70s.
But Vance said illegal ivory dealers are fair game in the war against poaching.
“If we only look at this issue as, ‘Hey, I didn’t have a permit,’ and you ignore the consequences, then you are fueling the trade of wildlife crime,” he said. “You are encouraging and fostering the extinction of species.”
Wildlife advocates say more than 24 tons of ivory was seized in 2011, making it the worst year for elephant death since the 1989 ivory ban. Today eight out of 10 dead elephants are killed by poachers, with the largest demand coming from China and Japan, where ivory is popular for billiard balls, piano keys, carved art and jewelry.