THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Forest Department has nabbed Aji Bright, considered to be the kingpin in the state’s ivory trade, from a house in Sreekaryam here on Sunday.

Two more people involved in the trade, Vijayan and Mill Ani, were apprehended along with Bright.

With this, the total number of arrests has increased to 13. The department also seized ivory artefacts weighing 45 kg, which included figurines of deities and carved tusks, worth crores of rupees in the international market from the house in which Bright was spotted.

“Aji Bright has been elusive for too long. We had information that he is in the second or third rung of perhaps the most notorious poaching syndicate in the country. The network he is affiliated to is spread the world over, especially in countries like Nepal, China and Sri Lanka, not to speak of his associates in other southern states,” a top forest department official said.

The department sleuths zeroed in on Bright and his two associates on the basis of information provided by the seven who were arrested on Saturday.

The raids were launched in the wake of reports that at least 37 wild elephant deaths had been poached for ivory in the last 10 years.