This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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A smuggling ring was recently busted, which allegedly smuggled narwhal tusks from the Canadian Artic region into Maine through a trailer in a secret compartment and then sold them illegally to American buyers. Authorities claim that the two arrested men include, Andrew Zarauskas of Union, N.J., and Jay Conrad of Lakeland, Tenn., who will be indicted and put on trial in Bangor, Maine, and are expected to appear in court on 29 to defend federal smuggling and money laundering charges.
Indictment reveals that the smuggling ring was working for almost a decade, during which time the two Canadians brought whale tusks to Maine, and then shipped them via FedEx to Zarauskas, Conrad and several other American buyers. Narwhals are often called unicorns of the sea because of their spiral and ivory tusks, which are sometime as long as 8 feet. These tusks are often sellable at price of several thousand dollars each, though it is completely illegal to import and sell them in the U.S. Documents reveal that alleged Canadian smugglers pocketed at least 150 payments through numerous tusk buyers.
The prosecutor in the case, acting on behalf of the environmental crimes section of the Department of Justice, Todd Mikolop, claimed that “the conspiracy we’ve alleged was over a period of 10 years, so there appears to have been enough of a market to support that length of conduct.” The president of Furcanada in British Columbia, Calvin Kania, shared that Narwhals are often found in Arctic waters and harvested by hunters for collecting meat, skin and tusks. Kania sells tusks to countries where it is not illegal, which people use for making ornaments and jewelry.
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