Two men from the Democratic Republic of Congo were sentenced for their involvement in trafficking wildlife products into the Pacific Northwest, which included elephant ivory, white rhino horn and pangolin scales. FOX13
, which included elephant ivory, white rhino horn and pangolin scales.
34-year-old Herdade Lokua and 32-year-old Jospin Mujangi were sentenced to 20 months and 14 months in prison, respectively. organizer of a trafficking operation involving more than five other co-conspirators whose goal was to ship a cargo container full of ivory, horn and pangolin scales to Seattle. Mujangi helped package the wildlife products and handled the financial details to process the payment through a Chinese bank and then back to DRC, according to the Department of Justice. is an international treaty recognized by 181 countries. In that treat, the white rhinoceros has been listed as a protected species since 1975 and the African elephant has been listed since 1977.
Between August and September 2020, Lokua and Mujangi made several small sales to build trust with the buyers. They sent three packages containing approximately 49 pounds of ivory from Kinshasa. They arranged for the ivory to be cut into smaller pieces and painted black; the packages were then falsely labeled as containing wood, the DOJ said. to meet with prospective buyers, who were actually undercover federal agents.
"Wildlife trafficking is decimating many species worldwide and has broader impacts to a country’s economic development and security," said Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI operations in the Pacific Northwest.
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