“For most of the defendants, the crime of an organized gang has been recognized, and the court confirms that we were dealing with a network that supplied the Asian market.

Unfortunately people are not there ”.

President of the Robin des Bois association, Charlotte Nithart was not completely satisfied Wednesday evening at the announcement of the sentences handed down by the Rennes criminal court.

Eight men, Irish, Chinese or Vietnamese, were sentenced to terms of up to three years in prison for trafficking in elephant tusks and rhino horns.

“Exemplary” sentences according to Robin Hood, but pronounced “by default”, in the absence of the four members of the “Rathkeale Rovers” (vagabonds of Rathkeale), a criminal group from the Irish community of Travelers.

Tom Greene, 33, received the heaviest sentence.

Tuesday, the magistrate of the public prosecutor's office had qualified this defendant of “predator who does not hold the rifle” and of “VRP of the rhino horn” and required six years in prison.

Four tusks found in cars

Greene was arrested with three other accomplices on the night of September 10 to 11, 2015, in Poitiers.

In their vehicle, customs officers discovered four African elephant tusks weighing a total of 42.6 kg and 32,800 euros in cash.

The investigation then revealed two networks of international trafficking of raw ivory and rhino horn to Vietnam and China, in connection with the "Rathkeale Rovers".

In the Chinese section, the court sentenced David Ta to two years.

This 51-year-old entrepreneur, specializing in the export of antiques and perfumes, was suspected of having managed a Franco-Vietnamese elephant tusk trafficking network.

"A real cultural and ecological massacre"

In the latter 14 tusks of African elephants had been discovered hidden under a pallet without valid supporting documents.

At the trial he presented himself as a simple collector.

Photos in Mr. Ta's phone had enabled investigators to count 62 tusks that passed through his company between November 2015 and April 2016. “These are serious facts that justify a prison sentence”, the president told him. court.

No committal order was issued against the eight convicts.

Customs fines of up to 200,000 euros, however, were imposed on the defendants.

This case constitutes "a real cultural and ecological massacre", had launched the representative of the public prosecutor Vincent Mailly, in reference to the poaching generated by this traffic.

Justice

Six years in prison required for rhino horn trafficker

Justice

Rennes: Up to 100,000 euros per kilo… International trafficking in ivory and rhino horns

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  • Rhinoceros

  • Poaching

  • elephant

  • Animals

  • Animal cruelty

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