SEOUL, July 3, 2008 (AFP) - South Korean police Thursday arrested a man who allegedly pocketed enormous profits by passing off cheap deer antlers imported from New Zealand as expensive homegrown items.

The man identified only as Park sold 5.62 tons of New Zealand antlers as local goods, Yonhap news agency quoted Seoul police as saying.

Deer antlers are an expensive and coveted traditional health supplement in Korea where they are thought to increase male sexual potency.

Over two years until March 2008, the operation allegedly earned Park 4.95 billion won (4.76 million dollars), 15 times the import price.

Park offered customers a one-day factory tour, at which he demonstrated the slicing of antlers supposedly produced on his own farm, police said.

In fact, he had only four deer on the farm.

South Korea eased import regulations for antlers from New Zealand in 2005.