A 39 year old resident of west coast Richmond, British Columbia has pleaded guilty to a charge of wildlife smuggling in front of a US federal judge in Manhattan yesterday.
Xiao Ju Guan, who owns an antiques business admitted trying to smuggle two horns from the endangered black rhino from the US into Canada.
All species of rhinoceros are protected by international and by US law, and any trade in rhino horn or elephant ivory has been strictly regulated since the mid 1970’s.
Guan had travelled from Vancouver with an interpreter to New York where undercover agents posing as dealers sold the two horns. They were shipped as “handicrafts” to an address in Point Roberts Washington just south of Vancouver near the US-Canada border.
U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release that “Guan indicated that he had people who could drive the horns across the border and that he had done so many times before”
Guan’s plea of guilty included an admission that he knew he was violating the law, and also that he and accomplices has smuggled some $400,000 worth of horn, ivory, and coral from the US into Canada.
Sam Hirsch of the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. “The illegal trade in rhino horn and elephant ivory and the escalation of black-market prices are directly related to horrific poaching on living animals.”
Guan will remain in a US jail until sentencing in March. He faces up to ten years in prison.
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