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Summary US officials seized some one ton of elephant ivory, one of the largest such seizures on US record.
The official arrested the owner of an African art store for allegedly illegally smuggling carved tusks into the United States, authorities said.Victor Gordon, 68, pleaded not guilty before US Magistrate Judge Steven Gold in federal court in Brooklyn, New York to charges of conspiracy, smuggling and the Lacey Act, an anti-trafficking law aimed at curbing illegal shipments of protected wildlife, including elephant ivory.Gordon paid an unnamed co-conspirator to purchase raw elephant ivory in western and central Africa and have it carved according to his specifications, according to the indictment. He told his partner to dye or stain the carvings to make them look older and ship them to his Philadelphia art store, prosecutors said.Hundreds of tusks sold or owned by Gordon were seized in Philadelphia, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Kansas, according to the indictment.The investigation netted one of the largest US seizures of elephant ivory on record, according to the US Attorneys Office in Brooklyn and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. If convicted on all the charges, Gordon faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He has been released on a $1 million bail.African elephants are listed as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act, part of an international agreement to protect elephants under the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.Importing, buying or selling African elephant ivory brought into the United States after 1989 is illegal, unless the artifacts are more than 100 years old.
