Narwhal tusk smuggler faces extradition hearing

A New Brunswick man convicted of smuggling narwhal tusks into the United States is facing an extradition hearing in April.

The U.S. Department of Justice wants to tryGregory Logan, of WoodmansPoint, for money laundering.

Logan's defence lawyer Brian Greenspan describedthe case as "international double jeopardy" during a brief court appearancein Saint John on Monday to set a date for the hearing.

Itwill be held in Saint John Court of Queen's Bench on April 1. Two days have been set aside.

Logan, who served 25 years as an RCMP constable, including a postingin Nunavut,wasconvicted in October of seven counts of trafficking offences relating to 250 narwhal ivory tusks.

He was fined a record $385,000 and given an eight-month conditionalsentence that includes four months of house arrest.

Greenspan said when it comes to extradition, it's not the specific offence that matters, but rather the conduct. In this case, Greenspan said the conduct is selling the tusks illegally, which he will argue his client is already being punished for.

Logan bought tusks mostly from Inuit co-opsin Nunavut and sold them to importers and collectors in the U.S.

Narwhals are medium-sized whalesthat liveyear-round in the Arctic.Male narwhals havea straight tuskthat can measure up to2.5 metres long.

The narwhal is a protected species in the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Only Inuit people can legally harvest narwhal in Canada. Its used as a source of food and income.

Tusks can fetch up to $100 per inch, according to the wildlife policy adviser forNunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, the land clams organization that represents the Inuit of Nunavut

About 500narwhal are harvested legally each year in Nunavut, from an estimated population of more than 100,000animals.

Logan hid narwhal tusks in his truck and trailer and drove from St. Stephen, N.B., to Calais, Me., where he deposited the tusks for shipment to a U.S. buyer, officials said.

The offences occurred between 2003 and 2009.