Tanzania has sentenced four Chinese men to 20 years in jail each after they were convicted of smuggling rhino horns, part of a crackdown in sub-Saharan Africa on lucrative illegal poaching of protected wildlife.
In Kenya in January 2014, a court convicted a Chinese man of smuggling ivory and ordered him to pay a fine of 20 million shillings ($233,000) or serve seven years in jail, the first sentencing since Kenya introduced its new anti-poaching law.
Chinese nationals get 20 years in jail for smuggling rhino horns
In November 2011 Hong Kong customs officers seized 33 rhino horns, as well as elephant ivory, concealed in a container arriving from Cape Town, South Africa.3 Because African rhinos have two horns on their heads, at least 16 had to die for this smuggling to occur.
In one investigation, Grace and his team uncovered an international smuggling network that was sending packages of rhino horns from locations across the country to be sold at an auction house in Beverly Hills, California.
The investigation documented the sale and smuggling of 100 rhino horns, and the senior auction administrator pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to smuggle wildlife products valued at more than $1 million. In another instance, a member of an Irish organized crime group was arrested and later admitted that he and others had traveled throughout the U.S. buying and selling rhino horns. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and forfeit $50,000 in illegal proceeds.
Two years ago, a Chinese antiques dealer was arrested in Miami and later convicted and sentenced to 70 months in jail for smuggling 30 rhino horns and numerous objects made of elephant ivory into China from the U.S. The goods had an estimated value of $4.5 million.
WINDHOEK - Four Chinese nationals convicted for the illegal possession of rhino horns, but acquitted on the main count of money laundering, were on Friday convicted on that charge on appeal in the Windhoek High Court.
In the US, a rhino horn trafficker convicted for trafficking a horn at USD 50,000, and trying to sell 10 more horns worth at least that much each, received a one-year sentence. Another man in the US convicted of trafficking 1,000 box turtles to China worth around a million dollars paid fines and fees totaling USD 350,000 and received two years of probation.
The biggest rhino horn seizure ever recorded was made in South Africa's North West Province on 13 April 2019. Two men were arrested for the possession of 167 rhino horns after local authorities received a tip-off that a large batch of rhino horns destined for South East Asia was in transit.[37] The men held a permit to transport the horns within Gauteng Province only but were arrested in North West Province. The men are currently waiting for their court appearance of 12 July 2019. The two men have each received prison sentences which will run concurrently for 25 years 2ff7e9595c
Comentaris