China’s notorious ‘Ivory Queen’ charged with smuggling in Tanzania
Yang Feng Glan , center, is escorted by police from Kisutu Resident’s Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Pic: AP.
A Chinese woman has been charged in a Tanzanian court with smuggling nearly 1.9 tons of ivory – more than 700 elephant tusks worth nearly $2.5 million.
Businesswoman Yang Feng Glan, 66, known as the ‘Ivory Queen, was charged Wednesday before Magistrate Renatus Lutatinisibwa alongside two Tanzanian men in Dar es Salaam.
The three suspects allegedly committed the crime between Jan. 1, 2000 and May 22, 2014. Their case was adjourned to Monday.
NGO Elephant Action League says Yang acted as the essential link between poachers in East Africa and ivory buyers in China.
“She recently disappeared from Tanzania, moving to Uganda, but returned one week ago, when the Task Force swiftly moved and arrested her. After confessing to many of her crimes she has been taken to the high court of Dar es Salaam facing a maximum sentence of 20-30 years imprisonment,” it said in a press release.
“It’s the news that we all have been waiting for, for years”, commented Mr. Andrea Crosta, co-founder of the Elephant Action League and WildLeaks. “Finally, a high profile Chinese trafficker is in jail. Hopefully she can lead us to other major traffickers and corrupt government officials. We must put an end to the time of the untouchables if we want to save the elephant”.
According to the Tanzanian government, 65,721 elephants have died in the country in the last five years, many killed by poachers for their ivory tusks. Tanzania’s elephant population has plummeted from an estimated 109,051 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014.
Additional reporting from Associated Press
