Africa Wild

Rhino horn smuggling bosses jailed in US

FIONA MACLEOD 17 MAY 2013 06:51 (SOUTH AFRICA)

A father and son team from Orange County in California, described by prosecutors as being “at the apex of the rhino horn smuggling pyramid within the United States”, have each been sentenced to more than three years in jail on federal smuggling and money laundering convictions. By FIONA MACLEOD.

Vihn Chuong “Jimmy” Kha and his son, Felix Kha, ran a lucrative US-based smuggling operation that prosecutors linked to rising levels of rhino poaching in South Africa, where at least two of the endangered animals are presently killed each day.

Jimmy Kha (49), of Garden Grove, was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison and his son was sentenced to 46 months. The Khas must also pay a total of $20,000 in criminal fines and a $185,000 tax fraud penalty.

The duo ran a smuggling ring linked to the purchase of at least 232 rhino horns, which were exported to Vietnam and China to be made into carved libation cups and traditional medicines. Charges against them included dealing in 128 horns from black rhinos, the most threatened of Africa’s two species of rhinos, with just an estimated 3,600 left in the wild, down from about 70,000 in the late 1960s.

In sentencing papers, federal prosecutors contended that in 2008 the demand for rhino horn in Asia began to increase after a 20-year period of low poaching rates. Seeing the developing market, the Khas “knowingly chose to illegally supply rhino horn to meet the growing demand, thereby simply increasing that demand”. They had “helped to drive the commercial value of rhino horn from a very low level to nearly $25,000 per pound.”

The increasing commercial value of rhino horn in turn had driven “the poachers back into the wild savannas of South Africa and other African countries in search of irresistible profits,” according to court papers. “By the peak of defendant Jimmy and Felix Kha’s wildlife trafficking conspiracy in 2011, 448 wild rhinos had been slaughtered for their horns in South Africa alone.”

Sentencing the duo on Wednesday, Judge Christina Snyder remarked that she had traveled to Africa and personally witnessed the effects of poaching. “There are parts of Africa where rhinos are completely gone,” she said from the bench. “Lord knows if they’ll ever come back.”

According to statistics released by South African conservation authorities on Wednesday, at least 313 rhinos have been poached in the country so far this year – 13 of them in the past week in the world-famous Kruger National Park. Last year at least 668 were illegally killed.

The Khas’ smuggling ring was exposed after the arrest in February 2012 of Jarrod Wade Steffen, a 32-year-old rodeo star from Texas. Steffen was arrested at Long Beach Airport in Los Angeles with $337,000 hidden in his carry-on luggage, including in a child’s nappy. Steffen admitted buying and mailing rhino horns to the Khas.

The father and son pleaded guilty to five felony counts – conspiracy, smuggling, wildlife trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion. Their company, Win Lee Corporation, which imports statues and other items from Asia, pleaded guilty to smuggling and wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act.

Judge Snyder this week ordered Win Lee Corporation to pay a $100,000 fine as well as $800,000 in restitution to the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, a statutorily created fund managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to support international efforts to protect and conserve rhinos and other critically endangered species around the world.

“We’ve broken up a smuggling ring that has been a major supplier to the global black market for rhino horns. It represents a serious blow to this trafficking and a disincentive for smugglers and poachers wherever they operate,” said Chris Tollefson, chief of communications at the service.

The arrest of the Khas was part of Operation Crash, a nationwide crackdown that has netted at least 330 rhino horns in the past year and seen the US emerge as a new link in the bloody rhino horn trade from Africa to Asia.

In the most recent arrest, on February 2 this year, Chinese oil executive Shusen Wei was caught as he headed towards his flight at JFK International Airport. Police pounced on him for offering a $10,000 bribe to a special agent investigating international rhino horn smuggling.

Wei was fleeing back to China after admitting to investigators his involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle 20 “raw rhino horns” to Hong Kong. He was arrested after trying to bribe a US Fish & Wildlife special agent to close the case.

Wei (44) is allegedly part of a smuggling ring headed by 28-year-old Chinese national Zhifei Li, who was indicted in February. He is accused of smuggling rhino horns to Hong Kong and China in porcelain vases, and was arrested after he bought two black rhino horns from an undercover agent for $59 000.

“Trafficking in rhino horn is about greed, pure and simple. People who smuggle rhino horn, regardless of where it comes from, are no better than the poachers in Africa who hack off the horns of living rhinos and leave them to die a horrible death,” said US Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe after Li’s arrest.

In addition to rhino horns, police have seized at least $2-million in cash, precious stones and 273 gold ingots worth about $1-million during Operation Crash, named after the collective noun for rhinos.

At least 13 suspects have been arrested so far in the ongoing investigation. At a United Nations conference earlier this month, international conservation agencies valued wildlife crime and illegal forestry at some $19.5 billion, ranking it the fourth-largest cross-border criminal activity in the world.

Operation Crash started with the prosecution of “the Irish gang”, who bought rhino horns in the US and smuggled them to Ireland hidden among furniture in shipping containers. In March Richard O’Brien and Michael Hegarty, Irishmen from Limerick who were caught trying to do a deal with an undercover agent, were each sentenced to six months in prison, three years probation and a $17 600 fine.

Another culprit netted in Operation Crash, Manhattan-based antiques dealer David Hausman (67), was arrested in a motel parking lot in February 2012 while he was in the process of sawing two black rhino horns off a trophy mount. Agents then confiscated six black rhino horns and four rhino heads from his apartment, along with “numerous carved and partially carved rhino horns”, synthetic rhino horns and $28,000 in cash.

In the US there is an antique exception for trade in rhino horns that are over 100 years old. Hausman, the court found, abused this exception by falsifying the age of the horns he was smuggling. In February he was jailed for six months and fined more than $28,000 for obstruction of justice and creating false records in connection with illegal trafficking. DM

Dang! So even Americans involved!

Presumably most horns are from trophies...crooks are crooks around the world!

(Note the Chinese connection again...)

Two California Men Sentenced for Rhino Horn Trafficking

17 May 2013

Washington — The sentencing May 15 of two California businessmen in Los Angeles for trafficking in rhino horn will send both to prison and ensure that $800,000 of their illegally acquired “profits” end up helping protect rhinos in Africa.
Vinh Chung “Jimmy” Kha and Felix Kha pleaded guilty in September 2012 to federal felony charges brought as a result of Operation Crash, an ongoing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation of rhino horn trafficking. The two were ordered to spend 42 month and 46 months in prison, respectively. They also will pay $20,000 in criminal fines (plus $100,000 from Jimmy Kha’s company) and $185,000 in tax fraud penalties and assessments and forfeit seized rhino horns and other assets to the government. These assets include $800,000 in cash, gold, jewelry and precious stones that will be turned over to the USFWS-managed Multinational Species Conservation Fund to support on-the-ground rhino conservation efforts in Africa.
“Rhinos in Africa are being poached to the brink of extinction because of the demand for rhino horn,” said USFWS Director Dan Ashe. “It’s only fitting that the ill-gotten gains of rhino horn traffickers be used to protect those animals that remain in the wild.”
A number of U.S. wildlife protection laws funnel criminal fine money into accounts that support the enforcement of those statutes, and federal judges in wildlife cases sometimes direct that “community service” or restitution payments be made to conservation organizations. But money and other cash assets forfeited as a result of federal criminal investigations typically end up in the general treasury, supporting overall government operations.
“The special agents and federal prosecutors supporting Operation Crash worked hard not only to bring these defendants to justice, but also to make sure the international effort to conserve rhinos received this extra financial boost,” Ashe said. “The money from this investigation more than doubles the amount typically distributed from the Multinational Species Fund in grants each year to support efforts by African nations to protect rhinos.”
The Khas are among 14 defendants across the country arrested to date in Operation Crash, which has exposed large-scale trafficking in rhino horn in the United States to feed markets in Vietnam and other Asian countries, USFWS said in an announcement of the latest sentences. With rhino horn reportedly selling for as much as $60,000 to $65,000 per kilogram in Asia, poaching has reached unprecedented levels in Africa, USFWS said. In 2012, the service added, 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa alone (home to the largest remaining populations of the species), a number that stood at fewer than 20 per year just five years ago.
Rhinoceros horn is a sought-after commodity, despite the fact that international trade has been largely banned since 1976. The demand for rhinoceros horn, which is used by some cultures for ornamental carvings, good luck charms or alleged medicinal purposes, has resulted in a thriving black market — a market that has escalated in recent years in both volume and per-unit profit, USFWS has said.
Before 1900, more than 1 million rhinos roamed wild in Africa alone, according to USFWS. There were more in Asia. But their numbers have declined drastically.
Fewer than 50 Javan rhinoceroses exist now, and only 200 Sumatran rhinos, according to USFWS. There are fewer than 3,000 Indian rhinos remaining in the wild.
Between 1970 and 1992, the black rhino population declined by 96 percent, according to USFWS. They went extinct in many countries, and by 1992, only 2,300 individuals survived in seven countries instead of occurring throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In 2012, there were about 4,200 black rhinos remaining, USFWS has said.
The Multinational Species Conservation Fund was created by Congress to provide grant money to support conservation of rhinos, tigers and other highly endangered species in the wild. Specifically, grants for rhino conservation in Africa have been used over the years to strengthen protections for rhinos, conduct surveys of populations and habitat, develop management capacity, carry out environmental education and awareness campaigns, involve local communities in conservation activities and develop alternative livelihoods to discourage poaching as an “economic” activity. The fund now provides about $700,000 each year for rhino conservation efforts in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, much of them targeting anti-poaching efforts, USFWS said.

21 May 2013

In two separate incidents, a total of six suspected rhino poachers have been arrested and one killed in and around &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Earlier today, four suspects entered &Beyond Phinda and were intercepted in a joint operation by the Phinda Anti-Poaching Unit (Nyathi APU Security), SAPS Durban Organised Crime Unit, SAPS Special Task Team and &Beyond Phinda Conservation Team. One suspect was killed and the other three were arrested (one of whom was injured). The three South African citizens and one Mozambican national were in possession of a high calibre hunting rifle, silencer, axe, six rounds of live ammunition and specifically prepared muthi (traditional medicine supplied by a sangoma/traditional Zulu healer). There is a strong link between some traditional healers and rhino poaching in KwaZulu-Natal, with the muthi believed to enable poachers to carry out their poaching activities successfully without police intervention.

An additional three suspected rhino poachers were arrested on 10 May in the town of Jozini, just north of &Beyond Phinda. They too were intercepted in a joint operation by the Phinda Anti-Poaching Unit (Nyathi APU Security), SAPS Empangeni Canine Unit and SAPS Durban Organised Crime Unit. The two Mozambican nationals and one South African citizen were in possession of a high calibre hunting rifle, silencer, axe and ten rounds of live ammunition. It is suspected that they were on their way from Mozambique to illegally hunt rhino at either &Beyond Phinda or Zulu Nyala Game Reserve, and it is also believed that they were involved with the poaching of a black rhino at Phinda in November 2012 and the more recent killing of a white rhino at Zulu Nyala.

All six men are currently in police custody and will face charges relating to attempted rhino poaching and possession of illegal firearms and ammunition. &Beyond expects maximum sentences for the accused and trusts that not only will they be denied bail, but that the magistrates will treat all suspected rhino poaching incidents as serious crimes.

Nyathi APU Security has been &Beyond’s preferred security provider for the past decade and their impressive results over the last six months have dealt a serious blow to poaching syndicates operating in the Zululand region. These latest arrests follow four separate anti-poaching operations at &Beyond Phinda since December 2012, whereby one armed poacher was killed, another wounded and seven suspects arrested. These successful interceptions can all be attributed to the close working relationships between the Nyathi APU, SAPS Organised Crime Unit, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Zululand Wildlife Security Initiative (a collection of private game reserves in the Zululand area) and various nongovernmental organisations such as Project Rhino KZN and The Bateleurs (aviation service in support of conservation). This joint collaboration is proving effective in fighting the war against rhino poaching and these arrests will serve a further blow to poaching syndicates operating in the Zululand area.

Posted by OSCAP and Crime Line on facebook

Renosterstroper moet 11 jaar sit

Die landdros was hom genadig omdat hy tydens sy arrestasie in die been geskiet is

23 May 2013 | Nicolene Smalman


NELSPRUIT - 'n Renosterstroper is gister (Donderdag) tot 11 jaar gevangenisstraf gevonnis nadat hy met 'n renosterhoring in die Nasionale Krugerwildtuin (NKW) in 2011 betrap is.

Hoewel hy tot 10 jaar tronkstraf daarvoor opgelê kon word, was die landdros hom genadig, omdat hy ten tye van sy arrestasie in die been geskiet is en vandag nie normaal kan loop nie.

Abel Mashabane (27) was op 15 Oktober 2011 saam met twee ander mans in die Houtboschrand-omgewing van die wildtuin. Twee soldate van die weermag het hulle gewaar toe hulle op pad na die grensdraad van Mosambiek was. Die voorste verdagte het 'n vuurwapen by hom gehad; die tweede een 'n byl en Mashabane het 'n sak met 'n renosterhoring op sy rug gehad.

Die soldate het die mans beveel om stil te staan waarop 'n skietgeveg tussen die twee groepe uitgebreek het. Die voorste verdagte kon daarin slaag om met die geweer tot in Mosambiek te vlug; die tweede man met die byl is doodgeskiet en Mashabane is in die been gewond en gearresteer.

Die horing in sy sak was vars en het 4,4 kilogram geweeg. Hoewel daar nie dié betrokke dag 'n karkas gevind kon word nie, is dit wel 'n ruk later opgespoor - sowat ses kilometer van waar Mashabane aangekeer is. Landdros Shirley Msibi het hom skuldig bevind aan onwettige jag binne, asook betreding van die wildtuin.

Sy regsverteenwoordiger het sy bes probeer om ter strafversagting te getuig. "Sy gesin kry finansieel sedert sy arrestasie baie swaar en weens die besering aan sy been, sal hy nie lank in die tronk in 'n ry kan staan en wag vir sy kos nie," het hy probeer.

Msibi het egter gesê dat Mashabane moes kon voorsien het dat hy geskiet sou word as hy die wildtuin onwettig betree. "Daar word daagliks in die media vertel hoe renosterstropers doodgeskiet word. Jy was deeglik bewus van die risiko's daaraan verbonde om die wildtuin onwettig te betree en jy het jouself hieraan blootgestel," het sy aan Mashabane gesê.

Hoewel hy tot 10 jaar agter tralies kon deurbring vir onwettige jag in die wildtuin, het Msibi sy besering in ag geneem en gelas dat hy net agt jaar hiervoor hoef te sit. Hy is tot 'n verdere drie jaar tronkstraf gevonnis omdat hy die wildtuin onwettig betree het.
Die saak is tot 4 Junie uitgestel sodat Mashabane tot verlof tot appèl kan aansoek doen.

Will try to translate later, but basically 11 years for a poacher who had half his leg shot off....therefore mitigating circumstances...I think he was lucky!

This seems to be the same story as the Afrikaans version posted by Toko earlier this evening except for the date when this incident occurred

KNP trespasser jailed for 11 years

Nelspruit - A man was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by the Nelspruit Regional Court on Thursday for trespassing and carrying out a restricted activity in the Kruger National Park.

Abel Mfana Mashabane, 26, from Phalaborwa, pleaded guilty to charges of trespassing in a designated area, after he and his friends were caught walking through the park at Houtboschrand on May 17, 2012.

Mashabane was shot and wounded when he and his friends were detained by game rangers.

“Other rangers began assaulting me, accusing me of owning the rhino horn which I suspect was brought by them and was planted in my bag,” he told the court.

Mashabane had previously testified that rangers framed him. The court heard the rangers had seen the men trying to cross into Mozambique with a bag containing a rhino horn with a street value of R250,000.

During sentencing, Mashabane's lawyers said prison was not a place for his client as his hip was dislocated when he was detained.

“Prison will be worse for him as he has been on crutches since the day of arrest. He has acknowledged the seriousness of the offence he faces, and that rhinos get killed on daily basis,” his lawyer said.

State prosecutor Isbet Erwee said the court should not set Mashabane free because of his injuries as he would be cared for in prison.

“Luckily he lost his hip and not his life,” she argued.

Magistrate Shila Msibi did not find Mashabane guilty of possession of a white rhino horn because neither the carcass nor killing site could be located. Msibi said she would not take an armchair approach as rhino killings were on the increase.

“It seems this year's rhino killings will exceed last year's statistic as currently, it stands to 238.”

She sentenced Mashabane to eight years for carrying out a restricted activity in a designated area, and three years for trespassing. The sentences will be served consecutively.

Mashabane's lawyer indicated his client would appeal the sentence on June 4. - Sapa

Two Rhino Poachers In Court

Two men accused of rhino poaching appeared in the Hluhluwe Magistrate's Court, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Friday

During Thursday's court proceedings Siphesihle Nthlengethwa, 23, and Mandla Zulu, 35, were charged with possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, attempted murder, attempting to hunt rhino, and trespassing, Captain Thulani Zwane said.

Their case was postponed to May 30 for a bail application.

"On Tuesday our members received information about suspects who were on their way to hunt rhino at Phinda Game Reserve, near Hluhluwe in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal," Zwane said.

Police confronted four armed men in the reserve. A shootout ensued and one of the four was killed. Another man was wounded and taken to hospital under police guard. The other two were arrested. Police confiscated their guns and an axe.

By Sapa, 2013-05-24

Three suspected Rhino Poachers arrested and one killed during a shoot-out


Media Statement from KwaZulu Natal Media Centre
Corporate Communication
South African Police Service


24 May 2013



A joint operation by Durban Organised Crime Unit, Special Task Force and Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit yielded results in the fight against rhino poaching when they arrested three alleged rhino poachers at Phinda Game reserve. The fourth suspect died during the shoot-out between the suspects and the police. A .458 caliber pistol and a hunting rifle fitted with a silencer were found in possession of the suspects.

On Tuesday, 21 May 2013 at 15:10 the members received information about the suspects who were on their way to hunt rhinos at Phinda Game reserve near Hluhluwe in the northern part of Kwazulu-Natal. The members followed up information and they saw four suspects armed with firearms inside Phinda Game reserve. When the members approached them, it is alleged that the suspects started to shoot towards the members and the members returned fire fatally wounding one suspect. The second suspect was wounded and was taken to hospital under police guard. The remaining two suspects were arrested and two firearms with ammunition were found in their possession. An axe suspected to be used by the suspects during rhino poaching was also found in their possession. The recovered firearms will be sent to ballistic tests to establish if they were used in any rhino poaching in the country.

They were charged with possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition, attempted murder, attempting to hunt rhinos and trespass. Two suspects, Siphesihle Nthlengethwa (23) and Mandla Zulu (35) appeared in the Hluhluwe Magistrate’s Court yesterday, 23 May 2013 and the case was remanded until 30 May 2013 for bail application. The wounded suspects (32) are still in hospital and wants he is discharged, he will also face similar charges as his co-accused.



Media Enquiries:

Captain Thulani Zwane
083 539 5726
KwaZulu-Natal: Media Centre
South African Police Service
Corporate Communication
031 325 6083/6084/6085
031 325 6087
kzn.mediacentre@saps.gov.za

Thanks for reporting, vinkie