British citizen involved with ivory smuggling into China

A British citizen is suspected of smuggling ivory, rhino and tiger products to China, customs in the eastern city of Fuzhou said on Friday.

Fuzhou Customs valued the smuggled products, which included more than 100 ivory items, a rhino horn cane and the whole skin of a tiger, at more than 1.2 million yuan (200,000 US dollars).

The British citizen, surnamed Hu, was born in China.

Fuzhou Customs said the British woman and her husband, a Chinese citizen living in Britain, bought the ivory products in Britain and then had the items mailed or transported in person to their relative living in China.

The relative, surnamed Zhang, would then sell the items to Chinese buyers, Fuzhou Customs said.

The British woman was arrested after entering China with the precious animal items in July.

According to Chinese laws, people smuggling precious animals products worth over one million yuan can be sentenced up to life imprisonment.

The Fuzhou Procuratorate is working on charges against all the suspects.