In a multi-agency joint operation involving Forest Department officials from Goa and Karnataka, two persons were arrested involved in a racket of smuggling hippopotamus teeth and tusks to potential buyers in Karnataka, bypassing them off as elephant tusks.
Speaking to reporters Goa Police Crime Branch Superintendent of Police Shobhit Saxena said that the duo of Vishnu Harmalkar (24) and Anil Parsekar (30) was arrested on Thursday.
“Vishnu had procured the contraband and had paid Anil money to transport it across the border in Karnataka,” Saxena said, adding that the duo was a part of a gang which operated in Goa and Karnataka’s Shivamogga district, which tried to pass off hippo teeth and tusks as elephant tusks.
The investigation in Goa followed a sting operation conducted by Forest Department officers from Shivamogga on August 25, when they posed as buyers of wildlife contraband and arrested three persons and seized three persons with nine hippo teeth.
Published 27 August 2020, 17:19 IST