TIRUCHY: Five persons including a minor were arrested on charges of smuggling elephant tusks worth Rs 5 lakh at Kulithalai in Karur on Thursday late hours.

On a tip-off that a gang has been smuggling elephant tusks, the officials from Tiruchy and Karur had made an elaborate search operation on Thursday and they secured five persons at Kulithalai on suspicion and the forest officials recovered a broken elephant tusk weighing 1.8 kg worth Rs 5 lakh.

Soon, the forest team seized the tusk and arrested all five persons who were identified as S Perumal (42) from Sathyamangalam in Erode, S Nagaraj (56) from Namakkal, K Raja (65) from Thottiyam in Tiruchy, C Natarajan (56) from Krishnarayapuram in Karur and a 17-year-old boy.

Upon interrogation, the gang told the officials that the tusk had been under their possession for several years and they found a buyer recently. So they were taking it to sell to that particular person. Further investigations are on.