KUNMING -- Police in Southwest China's Yunnan province said they apprehended three suspects and confiscated 51 pieces of wildlife products, with 2,864.5 grams in total weight.

On receiving a tip-off that people were illegally selling ivory products, police in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture started an investigation in January.

They detained a suspect, who was a shop owner identified by surname as Chen, on Jan 15 in the city of Jinghong, and found large amounts of products made from ivory and rhinoceros horns at his house.

In the subsequent operation, they apprehended two other collaborators in the same city.

Since 2017, Chen had illegally purchased wildlife products from Fujian Province and made profits by reselling them to other Chinese provinces through Wechat, according to the police sources.

The case is under further investigation.