Police in Tanzania have arrested a 66-year-old Chinese businesswoman, nicknamed Queen of Ivory, for running the largest Ivory smuggling racket in the East African region.
Tanzania's National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit arrested Chinese national Yang Feng Lan last week with a number of other ivory smugglers in the country's biggest crackdown on elephant poaching.
Yang was accused of smuggling 706 pieces of ivory worth $2.7 million between 2000 and 2014, reported Asia One. A court in Dar es Salaam charged Yang and her two Tanzanian associates Manase Philemon and Silvanus Matembo with smuggling Ivory. She faces 20-30 years behind bars if convicted.
"Yang intentionally did organize, manage and finance a criminal racket by collecting, transporting or exporting and selling government trophies weighing a total of 1.889 tons," prosecutors said in a court document, according to Shanghai Daily.
"It's the news that we all have been waiting for, for years," Andrea Crosta, co-founder of the Elephant Action League, said in a statement. "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."
The Chinese foreign ministry, in the wake of Yang's arrest, said that China remains committed to stopping the illegal ivory trade. "China is working with the international community towards the protection of endangered species, and is doing its best to fight illegal trafficking. We are putting in a lot of effort to deal with this," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, according to CRI.
