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Seven people have been arrested in the United States on charges of trafficking in endangered rhinoceros horns, federal officials said.
The most recent arrest took place Wednesday night when Jin Zhao Feng, a Chinese national, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Thursday.
Authorities suspect him of overseeing the shipment of dozens of rhino horns from the U.S. to China.
The arrests were the result of an 18-month investigation that was called "Operation Crash" — the term for a herd of rhinoceroses — and scrutinized an international smuggling ring that trafficked in sawed-off rhinoceros horns. The horns are used by some cultures for ornamental carvings, good luck charms or believed medicinal purposes, including cancer.
"The rhino is an animal of prehistoric origin that is facing possible extinction because of an illegal trade for its horns on the black market that is driven by greed," said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Depatment's Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Spike in rhino poaching threatens survival of species
All species of rhinoceros are protected under U.S. and international law, and all black rhinoceros species are endangered, federal officials said.
Rhino horns are composed of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. Rhinoceros horn is a highly valued and sought-after commodity despite the fact that international trade has been largely banned since 1976.
According to a report by NBC's Rock Center, an average-sized rhino horn in Vietnam can sell for as much as a quarter of a million dollars, which makes rhino horn gram for gram more valuable than gold or cocaine.
The arrests were initially reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Three of the alleged traffickers caught in Southern California were Jimmy Kha, 49, his girlfriend Mai Nguyen, 41, and Kha's 26-year-old son Felix. Each faces four counts of rhino horn trafficking in violation of federal laws protecting rare and endangered species.
Investigators reportedly seized several rhino horns, more than $1 million in cash, $1 million in gold bars, diamonds and Rolex watches during the raids, NBCLosAngeles.com reported.
One of the alleged suppliers, Wade Steffen, was arrested in Hico, Texas, and charged in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said.
The Khas began receiving packages from Steffen and another alleged supplier in 2010. Seventeen packages were opened under federal search warrants and 37 rhinoceros horns were found, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
South African town dehorns rhinos in attempt to ward off poachers
A search of Steffen's luggage at the Long Beach Airport on Feb. 9 turned up $337,000 in cash.
According to NBCLosAngeles.com, the rhino horns seized as part of the raids were reportedly destined for buyers in Vietnam and China.
In New Jersey, Amir Even-Ezra was arrested Feb. 18 on a felony trafficking charge after purchasing rhino horns from a New York resident in New Jersey.
Antiques expert David Hausman was charged in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with illegally trafficking rhinoceros horns and with creating false documents to conceal the illegal nature of the transaction, prosecutors said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Rangers in some African countries have been ordered to shoot poachers on sight. That is what should be done with these scumbags. Even better, was the TV reporter interviewing a woman who helps place poison in rhino horns which will kill or sicken the idiots who consume rhino horn powder. I hope they all die!!!
These sub human pieces of filth should all be killed, in much the same fashion as the rhinos. Ditto their customers.
If the slaughter of a 4000 lb animal for it's 25 lb horn, which has NO VALUE WHATSOEVER except in the minds of ignorant asians, doesn't make you hate the entire "species" of asian humans, what does? I'm a very racially tolerant and diverse person, but this pushes me over the edge. If I saw someone about to shoot a rhino for its horn, I think I would do my best to end the life of the animal trying to kill the rhino. At least take away the rifle and see if the little puke can still get the horn.
You're serious?
Do you not see the hypocricy in your own words? What exactly is racially tolerant other than a fancy way of admitting that you are a racist? You say you are diverse? That must mean: "looks like me and other species". Just in case you didn't know this: There are people from all over the world that poach, not just Asians, so how do you feel about the ones that look just like you?
@fritter-and-wait
When did asians become their own species? I must have missed that discovery.
Fritter and wait,
The hours in an offhand way.
Love to the Floyd!
An AUTOMATIC DEATH penalty for ANYONE handling, storing, selling, or transporting this animal product should be the law of our country. The ONLY EXCEPTION is for display on an actual rhino in a RECOGNIZED zoo or museum. If other country's do the same then the illegal sale and transport will stop and may be we will be able to save this animal. Those that view rhino horn is a commodity to be used and sold are flawed in their mental ability's and should be institutionalized.
There is only one place for these traffickers and poachers and that is to be thrown into the business end of a wood chipper.
If they find a lawyer, I hope the guy/gal extracts a huge fee and then makes a complete and utter balls of the defense. The penalty for this trafficking is too light - confiscation of all assets plus ninety-nine years in a Somali jail (and we can pay the Somali government a small fee to do this), or the woodchipper is more appropriate
Why do people in the US even do business with these people? Why do we even do business with china as they eat dogs, torture infants and enslave free speech? Is greed really so important, people? Is it really all about you?
"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." Me too fritter.
OK, first off, as you can all tell by my monicor, I love rhinos. That said, I think you have all gone a little over the top here. As an avid hunter myself, I hate poachers of any species more than most because I spend to much time and money to hunt legally to have some jerk come and just kill what he wants, when he wants. That said, do I think that person needs to die for it? No!. There are crimes that warrant the death penalty in my opinion, murder, rape of a child etc... But death for poaching? I just think that is over the top.
Lets try and gain a little perspective here folks.
If you don't kill the poacher, he, she, or they will kill you. Guaranteed.
One, it's not a guarantee, but if they do try to kill you then please note my comment regarding what does warrant the death penalty. If the person graduates from poaching to attempted murder then by all means, fire away.
the only way to save rhinos is to introduce them to safer areas maybe Texas or Australia any where you can because the places they live now are very poor and the people there get more for a horn than they could make in two years doing anything else if you could get 100'000 dollars for a white tailed deer in the us there wouldn't be many left. to people in rural Asia and Africa 500 or 1000 dollars is a fortune if you think you can stop them just look at the war on drugs
Australia maybe the gun happy place known as Texas would be giving all the rhinos an immediate death sentence
That is one horny rhino40.
Would love to turn the table on these people. Wonder how they would like to become the hunted for an arm, leg or any other part of their body except of course their brain, because obviously it is twisted. Not only these rhinos are being destroyed, bears are sought for their bile, lions, tigers and many others for their coats, elephants for their tusk and apes for body parts. Makes you wonder what these "people" and I use the term loosely are thinking.
Spare the rhinos; I'll sell my fingernail and hair clippings (with the same mystical properties as rhino horn keratin) for only $300 / ounce!
There's an idea. Everyone could send in their nail clippings to be formed into horn facimiles, and then sold so the little asian thingy's can stand up straight.
Guard the rhinos and shoot the poachers. No more of this "catch and release" crap!
More valuable than gold I can understand, but cocaine? Wow!
As punishment, these idiots should be forced to donate a kidney or an eye to someone who needs it. See how they feel about being parted out.
Oddly enough, the same can be said for pot. I wonder if we could turn the users of rhino horn onto something sustainable?
Actually the horn can be removed without killing the rhino, but these poachers are too dumb to do that. Not that I think they should be allowed to anyway, just saying.
You are correct, but I remember an effort several years ago to cut them off to thwart poachers and they poachers got mad and killed them anyway. Real smart people....
My hope is that they actually prosecute these people and NOT just evict them from the US. These foreign nationals get away with a lot of crap and then just get expelled.......... The penalty has to be stronger than the profit for these people to stop. Start by making the convictions hurt more......
The Kruger Park in South Africa loses, on average, one rhino a day.
They'll be wiped out by early 2015 if that trend stays.
now is the time to chop off their heads boil them and post on sticks in rhino land!
leave their heads on and remove their noses with a machete. better yet.
Every time an investigation of 18 months is used, the Rhinoceros becomes more extinct. The only thing is humans are identified and charged. Action must be faster, if not immediate.
Tripod- I believe Ronald was referring to the poachers heads.
And Tripod was referring to the poachers noses. A good Idea, I thought of the same thing, haha
Once again here we go! the Human race can kill animals for no reason, (well at least for a very stupid reason), and if the animals do strike back, everyone wants to jump up and down and go out and kill them! Animals, deserve better than we give them, in fact some so-called animals are smarter than us, these poacher's need to be taken back to Africa, and turned loose in the desert with nothing but stick and then let the animals eat them or tear an arm or leg off! This crap is getting old. 'THE BAD GUYS WIN, WHILE THE GOOD GUY STANDS AROUND AND DOES NOTHING BECAUSE EVERYTIME THEY DO NOTHING GETS DONE"
Completely agree, Ralph.
Unfortunately, given the way we treat each other, it's not surprising how we treat animals.
Doesn't it seem like much of the worlds population is stuck in stupid while others elect to be educated and learn the truths of our society and science? Between religious fanatic cave dwellers, supersticious voodoo and fairy tales it feel like instead of progressing we're going backwards. Maybe they're not drinking enough water. There must be a common denomenator.
Here in the USA we're definitely going backwards. Just take a look at our presidential choices for this year. It will probably take decades to reverse the trend, but there's not even any evidence of that happening. Want to see our future? Read "The Marching Morons" by CM Kornbluth.
Of course our laws are too weak to see these scum locked away for life as they should be. Endangered species are precious dying creatures and these greedy foreigners come here to run their black market business. Chinese are evil at heart and seem to find a way to exploit everything, so too are many Americans.
If they can only catch 5 of hundreds or thousands what the h e l l are they doing the rest of the time? Forget the drugs! Focus on living creatures being slaughtered for their horns. Drugs have no consequence for an endangered species and the so-called ~War On Drugs~ was lost years ago.
Vegains - I agree that penalties for poaching need to be made much more harsh if there is to be a deterrent value. To generalize that "Chinese are evil at heart" is ignorant on your part. I would say that the motivation for poaching is driven more by greed than by "evil", though this is not to say that evil deeds are not commited by poachers. You need to realize that the Chinese and other Asian cultures are involved primarily as dealers and end users and not in the act of poaching itself.
You also seem to be misguided in terms of enforcement efforts and what it takes to infiltrate rings of poachers and dealers in wildlife related contraband. Often the agents tasked with conducting such investigations must do so covertly and it takes time to win the trust of those being ivestigated. As well, much of this activity takes place internationally and within a number of cultural settings making it highly difficult for agents to follow given limited resources. All of this takes place with people who will not think twice about killing you if they suspect you are a wildlife agent. To say that agents are not spending time on such matters is highly ignorant on your part. Also regarding your assertion that "drugs have no consequences" for wildlife resources, it is a known fact that there have been cases of poaching for profit where monies gained were used to purchase illegal drugs. I am not so sure your Vegan diet is doing much for maintaining a healthy brain.
These people should be turned over to the authorities in South Africa. I'm sure they will give them due process.
tie 'em up and hack off their noses and leave 'em. done deal. post on the internet to all other poachers as a warning. fight fire with fire. save the rhinos.
I love a good bacon wrapped rhino tenderloin. A nice cab or red zin to accompany; yummy.
hey smoot........you're a real A$$HOLE..........hope you have a great day, NOT.
Yeppers Smoot , and the Rhinos love tightly wrapped (what Tripod said) around their horns , so they can show them off to the others!!
Smoot Mahooty should be reduced to a greasy smear on the I-90.
Note to self .... Save the Rhinos .... start a rhino ranch .... remove horns to keep them from harming each other. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Unfortunately, much of the demand for rhino horn comes from people who are ignorant of its properties. It would seem that a wide scale educational effort would be crucial to curbing demand, yet, there is little time for that and much doubt that resources for such a campaign would be allocated.
The article is lacking in that it does not state what penalties those arrested in this case face. Past experience has shown that often laws specific to poaching are weak and fine imposed are rarely the maximum allowed by law, and this needs to change. All assets seized should be reallocated to fund anti-poaching / conservation efforts.
It is important that people realize that hunting and poaching are two completely different things. The far majority of hunters denounce poaching and are highly supportive of efforts to thwart such activities.
As a hunter and someone who spent the majority of his career working in the field of conservation law enforcement, I fear for the future of rhino populations unless highly concerted efforts are made toward maintaining and increasing the remainding breeding populations.
My deepest respect goes out to the Game Wardens who are waging the fight everyday for the protection of these magnificent animals, they have an extremely dangerous and difficult job. Like most Game Wardens everywhere on the planet, they are highly commited to their jobs and do so with great professionalism.
Now this is a no brainer those who killed Gods creatures for profit should have there protruding parts also cut off and fed to them.
Life in prison for all involved. Better than the death sentence they serve on the rhinos. If they are naturalized citizens or illegals let them rot in a US prison since they think we are the source of all things good. Land of hope and glory, land of milk and honey, better we be the land of justice.
I say you cut a rhinos horn off, you get your horn cut off...ouch!!!!! Before you get the life in prison.
LOL @lttlfan I also have been stupid to have tossed out all the nail clippings (I must have tossed enough out yesterday for a gold ring and an ounce or 2 of coke)
But seriously, I am glad that the feds have shown what they were doing in this so called "operation crash" . The natives receive pittance compared to the middle men, that is just wrong also. Maybe the people involved should be made to work for the natives and provide them with food,water and whatever other essentials they need to deter them from needing to kill unnecessarily to provide their families with just the basics that the rest take for granted.
I hope that the killing of all the endangered exotic animals that people "have to have" for their walls/dens is stopped , unless or untill they become a dangerous nuisance to them and the rest !!
I'm glad to see that the authorities are doing their part to enforce the laws that were put in place to protect animals.
Good. I don't know what the punishment is for smuggling in poached ivory and such, but like poachers themselves I hope they get a hefty amount of time in prison without the possibility of parole or capital punishment.
They should impose the death penalty, period.
I would advocate that the punishment for rhino poachers be this: cut their noses off their faces (using no anesthetic, of course) and leave them to die.
These idiots needing a capcha, or whatever, all the time is ridiculous.
i hope not all chinese people are as stupid as the four who got caught. just punishment would be to put those four in a "canned hunt" enclosure, and let some rhinos get even for what they did to their buddies. it's also a good way to get even for the animals, as some stupid "hunter" shoot animals in that setting, the "canned hunt". i think that's a win-win for everyone involved. i want those rhinos to be able to exact revenge. i swear we would actually see a smile on their faces.
Go back and read the article.
"Three of the alleged traffickers caught in Southern California were Jimmy Kha, 49, his girlfriend Mai Nguyen, .....
"One of the alleged suppliers, Wade Steffen,
Then tell us, do these names sound CHINESE to you????
The authorities should cut off the noses of the arrested individuals. See how they like it!
I don't know that cutting off their noses will be a price to pay, but some have been ordered to shoot any seen threat to the Rhino.