Japan’s criminal syndicates have increasingly targeted the marine animal which is considered an expensive delicacy

Police in Japan have arrested several people for allegedly poaching a huge haul of sea cucumbers – an unsightly but expensive delicacy that has attracted the attention of the country’s crime syndicates.

The five men were arrested for stealing more than 600kg of the marine creates in seas off Fukuoka, south-east Japan, in what local media are calling one of the largest sea cucumber-poaching incidents since the echinoderms achieved coveted status among criminals several years ago.