Story highlights Lawmakers, wildlife officials watch more than a ton of ivory get crushed

"Criminals, take notice," says Cristian Samper, president of Wildlife Conservation Society

(CNN) The message was crushingly loud and clear: Stop the illicit ivory trade.

And to highlight it, the United States destroyed more than a ton of elephant ivory in New York's Times Square on Friday.

Lawmakers, wildlife officials, conservationists and bystanders watched the ivory turn into sand-like powder as an industrial rock crusher descended on carvings and raw tusks.

"Today, we are not just crushing illegally poached ivory; we are crushing the bloody ivory market," said Cristian Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society

"We are crushing any hopes by the poachers that they will profit by killing off our Earth's majestic elephants. Criminals, take notice."

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