REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Riau Police have detained eight people for hunting Sumatran elephants and have confiscated several ivory tusks.
The arrests were made on Tuesday evening while they were trying to sell a pair of two-meter-long ivory tusks, Riau Police spokesman Adjunct Senior Commissioner Guntur Aryo Tejo stated here on Wednesday (2/11).
The tusks were extracted from a wild male elephant that had been killed in Mandau sub-district, Bengkalis District, Riau Province.
The ivory tusks were about to be sold at a price of Rp10 million per kilogram.
The eight poachers, including FA who is the main orchestrator of the crime, were detained at the Riau police office.
They face a five-year prison term and are liable to pay a fine amounting to Rp200 million.
The arrest was the first of its kind after four years, despite several poaching cases being reported.
The WWF has recorded 43 cases of Sumatran elephant poaching in Riau, however, no arrests have been made so far. In 2012, there were 15 cases reported, but no arrests were made.
In 2013, there were 14 cases of elephant deaths, of which 13 were found dead in Tesso Nilo National Park.
As per reports, 14 wild elephants were found dead under unnatural circumstances in 2014.
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