Los Angeles dealer gets probation for selling illegal ivory

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles antiques dealer has been sentenced to three years of probation after being convicted of selling ivory tusks in violation of state law.

City Attorney Mike Feuer says Tuesday that Anthony James Buccola was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

Buccola’s company, Antonio’s Bella Casa, was also placed on 36 months of probation and ordered to pay the same fine.

Prosecutors said Buccola sold two illegal narwhal tusks — measuring 79 and 87 inches — to an undercover officer for $60,000. Narwhals are rare sea mammals.

The sales violated a law that went into effect in 2016 prohibiting the purchase or sale of products containing ivory from animals — including elephant tusks, warthog tusks and whale tusks.