Chinese Ivory Smugller Sentenced

Tanzania has sentenced the so-called "Queen of Ivory" and Chinese national, Yang Fenglan to fifteen years in prison for smuggling ivory worth $5.6 million out of the country.  Yang was arrested in 2015 with two Tanzanian men and charged for trafficking 860 pieces of ivory.  Authorities say that represents 350 dead elephants.  Yang was Secretary General of the Tanzania-China-Africa Business Council and has lived in Tanzania since the 1970's. She owns a popular Chinese restaurant in Dar-es-Salam. The leaders of the criminal syndicate were also order to pay twice the value of the ivory in restitution or serve another two years in prison.  When asked about the conviction of a prominent Chinese businesswoman, a foreign ministry spokesman said China does not shield its citizens who engage in illegal activity. Tanzania sentenced two Chinese men to thirty-five years for ivory smuggling in 2016.  Conservationists say the sentence was too lenient considering Yang ran a network responsible for the death of thousands of elephants. Tanzania's elephant population has shrunk from 110,000 in 2009 to just 43,000 in 2015.   Conservationists blame rampant poaching for the decrease.

Wildlife poaching goes on around the globe, and in the Philippines this story made the news. Customs authorities found 1,529 live turtles covered in duct tape inside abandoned baggage at Manila's international airport. They say the baggage belonged to a Filipino arriving from Hong Kong.  Philippine customs makes regular seizures of illegally traded wildlife; the cases may have been abandoned after the trafficker lost his or her nerve passing through screening. The smuggled turtles included endangered species such as the beautiful Indian star tortoise. (Geochelone elegans) [photo] This species is the single most trafficked species of tortoise in the world, according to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Nearly 15,000 Indian star tortoises were seized from the illegal trade between 2016 and 2018. The tortoises discovered in Manilla are worth an estimated $86,000. Customs officials said in a press statement that they, "will continuously protect the borders against importation and exportation of illegal wildlife trade and other prohibited and anti-social goods."