Aussie antiques dealer faces prison term in US for smuggling elephant ivory, rhino horn

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http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/australian-antiques-dealer-facing-prison-term-in-us-for-wildlife-smuggling-20171115-gzmbgg.html
....."But United States authorities say that Chen was running a "complex, international scheme" in the background, one that allowed almost $1 million in elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn and coral to be trafficked around the world, including two endangered black rhinoceros heads secretly delivered to China in a suitcase by a Scientologist reality TV star.

Chen, a wealthy antiques dealer running businesses in China and Australia, is now facing a long sentence in a US federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally smuggling dozens of protected wildlife items from the US.

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Emails reveal how Chen subverted authorities for six years by paying commission to the owner of a suburban United States Postal store in Concord, Massachusetts, Carla Marsh, who shipped the items to Hong Kong with export documents that stated they were non-wildlife items like porcelain, wood or plastic figurines.

In 2012, after Chen had wired $65,000 to buy a rhinoceros horn libation cup in New York, Yang delivered it to Marsh, who packed it inside a vase and shipped it without permits required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). On another occasion in 2014, she shipped an ivory carving worth $13,000 with an export notice saying it was a $50 wooden statue.
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Officers seized a further 21 ivory items and three coral items that Marsh was storing for Chen in her UPS store. She was sentenced to a year's probation.
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The case exposed "the complex international schemes" involved in wildlife smuggling, acting assistant director of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ed Grace, said. It is one of about 50 prosecutions against individuals and auction houses by US authorities in recent years as part of a national "take-down" operation targeting international trafficking of rhinoceros horn and ivory." (More)

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