Teo Boon Ching, a ‘middleman’ in a global criminal network, was arrested after negotiating a sale of horns to an undercover source.
Teo Boon Ching, a Malaysian wildlife trafficker known by a range of aliases including the Godfather, has been jailed for 18 months in the United States for smuggling hundreds of kilos of horns from endangered rhinoceros.
Ching, 58, was arrested in Thailand on a US extradition request in June 2022, after a covert operation exposed his attempts to traffic at least 219kg (483 pounds) of horns from “numerous” endangered African white and black rhinoceros. He was also sanctioned.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Tuesday in New York.
“Wildlife trafficking is a serious threat to the natural resources and the ecological heritage shared by communities across the globe, enriching poachers responsible for the senseless illegal slaughter of numerous…
