According to the latest news released by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs, the country’s rhino death toll has risen to 210 since the beginning of the year.

Flagship tourist destination Kruger National Park has been hardest hit, with 127 of its rhinos slaughtered.

Arrests for this year total 128 so far; 67 of these were made in Kruger National Park.

BuaNews reported that South Africa is “cooperating with perceived transit or consumer countries in the People’s Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

Last year, the rhino death toll did not reach 200 until July 4^th.

Learn more at:

• April 10, 2012: ‘Legal’ Trade in Rhino Horn is an Old Agenda, Not a New Solution
• January 26, 2012: China’s ‘Rhino Horn Cancer Treatment’ Scheme
• March 29, 2011: Busting the Rhino Horn Medicine Myth with Science
• August 16, 2010: Illegal Trade in Rhino Horn: The Vietnamese Connection

Image: Saving Rhinos

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

The International Rhino Foundation has set an ambitious target of raising $10,000 on “Cinco de Rhino” — May 5^th — and you can help make it happen!

On May 5^th (or anytime!), set aside a moment to make a donation to International Rhino Foundation — or go all out and host a Cinco de Rhino party! (Check out what the International Rhino Keeper Association and San Diego Zoo Safari Park are doing for Cinco de Rhino!)

Hosting a Cinco de Rhino celebration is a fun way to raise money for rhinos, and IRF has posted a party guide with ideas and recipes on their website.

For your Cinco de Rhino party, you can set a fundraising goal and ask your friends to donate. You can send your party proceeds to IRF via their online donation form (or mail a check).

Every dollar makes a difference!

• $25 will provide four days of food and veterinary care for an orphaned baby rhino in Zimbabwe.
• $50 will employ an Indian rhino monitor for 2 weeks on anti-poaching and monitoring patrols.
• $100 will provide 1 week of food and veterinary care for a Sumatran rhino at the Sumatran rhino sanctuary.
• $500 will purchase a high-quality GPS unit for rangers in South Africa to help track rhinos and help fight poachers.

To learn more about the amazing work of the International Rhino Foundation, visit their website.

“Cinco de Rhino” image #1: Saving Rhinos. Additional materials supplied by International Rhino Foundation.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

South Africa’s rhino death toll has risen to at least 199 since the start of 2012, according to the most recent statement made by the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs.

It was noted that 119 rhinos were massacred in Kruger National Park, and the total for Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces together was 73.

The DEA also said that 122 people have been arrested this year for rhino-related crimes, “of which 108 were poachers, 10 receivers/couriers and four couriers/buyers”.

To report tip-offs, the Department asks South Africans to call 0800 205 005.

Faster rate of killing than last year

In 2011, the number of rhinos killed did not reach 200 until July 4^th.

With 199 rhinos murdered during these first four months of 2012, the body count could unfortunately reach 600 by the end of the year, if this pace continues.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

Tragedies in Kenya.

Security has been increased in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Solio Ranch, following the recent discovery of two separate rhino killing incidents.

Kenya Wildlife Service reports that the body of a pregnant white rhino was found by Lewa rangers; her horns were missing.

A male black rhino was also slain for his horns at Solio Ranch.

It is believed that the murderers cut the sanctuary’s electric fence. Although authorities heard gunshots, the culprits escaped.

Two cartridges from a .303 rifle were found.

Finally, skulls and bones from three rhinos were discovered in Lake Nakuru National Park.

The six-month-old remains were found in a “previously inaccessible” area; one of the bodies was a black rhino, and the other two were white rhinos.

Staff Writer

Saving Rhinos website: savingrhinos.org | Blog: Rhino Horn is NOT Medicine | Web series and podcast: Behind the Schemes | World Rhino Day: worldrhinoday.org |

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Is the attempt to gather support for a ‘legal’ trade in rhino horn a solution — or just a long-standing agenda?

Although the notion of “legalizing” the trade in rhino horn has recently been touted as a “solution” to the rhino crisis, it turns out that the same agenda was proposed 15 years ago — during a year when four rhinos were killed in South Africa.

At the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES in 1997, South Africa’s pro-trade syndicate* (PTS) sought to expand its Southern white rhino trade from “international trade in live animals to appropriate and acceptable destinations and hunting trophies” to include rhinoceros “parts and derivatives”.

Despite trade in rhino horn being banned internationally in 1977 and China banning its use in traditional Chinese medicine in 1993, the PTS wanted to seek “support for open and transparent discussions with practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine concerning the possibility of a limited, tightly controlled trade in rhinoceros horn”, using the argument that this would “generate funds for conservation and reduce incentives for illegal trade”.

However, it was determined that South Africa lacked “adequate control mechanisms” for a legal trade — even at a time when illegal killing numbers were declining and continental rhino populations were rising.

Proposal rejected — twice

South Africa’s proposal was ultimately rejected at the 1997 Conference of the Parties, when it twice failed to gain the required two-thirds majority vote.

After losing in the initial standard vote (60 in favor, 32 against) , South African delegates then demanded a controversial “secret ballot” vote.

Ironically, the secret ballot resulted in 50 votes in favor and 48 against.

By 1998, the WWF determined that “the mid- to late-1990s have signalled a changing tide for Africa’s rhinos as poaching has notably declined.”

Same agenda, new name

The opposition towards South Africa’s 1997 proposal revealed concerns about the country’s ability to manage a legal trade and the potential effect that the additional market would have on other rhino range states.

These concerns included:

• The lack of adequate control mechanisms for a legal horn trade
• Annotating appendices
• Southern white rhino populations outside South Africa had not yet recovered to acceptable levels
• The potential for the amendment to undermine the progress made in reducing demand for rhino horn

The recent (2008 — 2012) escalation in rhino killings in South Africa seems to have resuscitated the PTS agenda, which they have renamed a “poaching solution”.

But several issues remain inadequately addressed by this scheme.

Let’s take a look.

Rhino horn laundering and stockpiles

South Africa currently has only a tenuous grasp (at best) on its existing legal trade in rhinos, as evidenced by the arrests of game farmers, professional hunters, veterinarians, and safari operators who have been caught abusing their privileges.

And while the tiresome call to sell South Africa’s private and state-owned rhino horn stockpiles is repeatedly dusted off and trotted out as a stopgap measure, the stockpile situation exemplifies a serious “lack of control mechanisms” — particularly regarding the private sector.

These suspicions seem to have cropped up thirteen years ago, when the issue was highlighted in a 1999 report from the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group (AfrRSG).

Concern has also been expressed about the adequacy of the control and registration of horn stocks in South Africa, especially those in the private sector.

The nation’s CITES documentation shows that private stocks have been assessed for only four of nine provinces, with no information to date on those in the Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Mpumalanga.

(Mpumalanga coincidentally is home to what has been called the world’s largest private collection of rhinoceroses.)

According to experts, these five provinces together hold some 20% of all privately owned rhinos in South Africa.

Two failed attempts to audit the privately owned stockpiles between 2007 and 2008 apparently ended in criminal investigations, according to the 2009 report on African rhinos to the CITES Secratariat.

While investigations following these audits are ongoing, it is not clear whether any legal action will result.

In 2009, the AfrRSG estimated that an average of at least 50 horns had been illegally sold into the black market every year since 2006.

That number is likely to have increased substantially since then and yet the amount of South Africa’s privately owned rhino horn stockpiles remain largely unknown even today.

Neighboring populations and Asian rhino species

The PTS consistently fails to address the impact that South Africa’s proposal would have on rhinos in other range states.

In fact, the existence of the three Asian species — greater one-horned, Javan, and Sumatran rhinos — is rarely, if ever, acknowledged by those who are seeking to legitimize South Africa’s role as a rhino horn supplier.

Asian rhino populations might not survive the onslaught of an even larger market for rhino horn.

For example, in the case of China’s continuing attempts to have its illegal tiger farms legitimized, expert opinion from the IUCN and SSC Cat Specialist Group concluded that “products from farmed animals as well as supply from wild populations are on the market [demonstrating] that in many cases demand for wild animals has increased rather than decreased”.

Commercial use of tiger products in China is only one threat to the survival of the tiger in the wild; but it carries a very high potential of negatively affecting the wild populations not only in China but, more importantly, in neighbouring countries, if it were to drive poaching and illegal trade.

It is noteworthy that a comprehensive report on the status of African and Asian rhinos prepared for CITES in 2009 confirmed that “trade developments in South Africa” were already stimulating the demand for rhino horn in traditional consumer states.

Whilst the impact on national rhino numbers is still minimal, rhino horn trade developments in South Africa have been the principal driving force behind the resurgent rhino horn trade in Asia, most notably in Viet Nam and, to a lesser extent, China.

Demand reduction

One of the first steps of demand reduction is awareness regarding the use of rhino horn in traditional Chinese medicine. Significant progress is being made in generating awareness and the mixed message of legal trade would undermine decades of efforts to educate end users and reduce demand for rhino horn.

Recognizing the link between rhino horn use and rhino killings, the President of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) and Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM) released a statement in 2011 opposing the use of rhino horn in medicines.

In March 2012, the Vietnamese NGO Education for Nature-Vietnam launched a rhino horn trade awareness campaign which will produce two public service announcements for national TV. One PSA is targeted towards rhino horn consumers and the other towards rhino horn traffickers.

Health risks

Additionally, encouraging the use of rhino horn is harmful to people who would otherwise seek medical attention.

In 2011, a woman in Hanoi became sick after consuming a rhino horn mixture to treat a rash around her mouth. She reportedly paid a large sum of money for the “treatment” – and then ended up in Bach Mai Hospital when her symptoms worsened.

From CITES (CoP15 Doc. 45.1):

It is despicable that criminals are financially exploiting sufferers, and their relatives, at a time when they will be struggling to cope with distressing and sometimes terminal medical conditions.

It is deeply troubling that potential health risks are discarded in favor of financial gain.

(A 2001 survey of private rhino owners published in Pachyderm found that “financial benefits rather than conservation principles appeared to drive white rhino management” and 79 percent of the respondents were “keen” to sell their rhino horn stockpiles. It seems little has changed during the past 11 years.)

Motivation?

While improved (radically improved) measures for rhino trade monitoring and stockpile management would be most welcome (and long overdue), it seems there is interest in such improvements only as it relates to the PTS agenda.

Indeed, this observation was made at a workshop facilitated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust in March 2011.

Concern was however raised by some conservation NGOs that the only reason there is a call to put systems in place is in order to legalise trade and that these measures should be implemented regardless of a legalised trade being assured or not.

Rhino numbers rising

The PTS and their supporters would like the public to believe that if we do not accept their plan, rhinos will go extinct.

However, since the ban on rhino horn trade has been enacted, African rhino populations have increased overall.

If there is anything positive to come of this crisis, then perhaps it is that South Africa’s bad apples, dirty players, and rhino horn dealers are being rooted out, identified — and hopefully, punished to the full extent of the law.

Co-authored with Sarah Pappin.

*The group lobbying for legalized horn trade (along with similar bodies pushing for legalized ivory trade and whaling) in 1997 was dubbed the “pro-trade syndicate” (PTS) in a media briefing paper by Greenpeace: It is often hard to tell what groups and individuals are behind the (nominally) non-governmental pro-trade lobby. By using legitimate arguments about the need for poorer countries with many wildlife species to conserve their wildlife in ways that involve and work for local people, they cloak their profit-centred agenda for trade liberalisation.

Sources:

Dublin, H. and A. Wilson. 1998. “The Fight for Survival: Four Decades of Conserving Africa’s Rhinos,” WWF International, Gland, Switzerland.

T. Milliken, et al. “African and Asian rhinoceroses — Status, Conservation, and Trade.” A report from the IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC) African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups and TRAFFIC to the CITES Secretariat pursuant to Resolution Conf. 9.14 (Rev. CoP14) and Decision 14.89, November 2009.

Castley, J.G. and A.J. Hall-Martin. “The status of the southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) on private land in South Africa in 2001.” Pachyderm No. 34. January — June 2003.

“Cat Specialist Group opinion to China’s domestic tiger trade policy review.” IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group (2007)

“Perspectives on Dehorning & Legalised Trade in Rhino Horn as Tools to Combat Rhino Poaching.” 1 – 3 March 2011. Workshop Report. Convened by Endangered Wildlife Trust. Sponsored by The South African Mint Company.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

A sigh of relief.

A quick follow up to the shocking news that the KAZA partner states planned to “sell rhino horn powder in clinics and pharmacies”, as reported earlier this week in South Africa: Reliable sources close to the situation have indicated that this information is a rumor and no such agreement was made.

The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, or KAZA TFCA, is potentially the world’s largest conservation area, spanning five southern African countries; Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, centred around the Caprivi-Chobe-Victoria Falls area.

To learn more about the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, visit the KAZA-TFCA website.

Image © iStockphoto.com

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

Update 27 March 2012: No sale of rhino horn powder in Southern Africa.

An unsettling article in the Times Live reports that the five Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) partners — Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Angola — have “agreed to the sale of rhino horn powder in clinics and pharmacies”.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema, was quoted by the South African news site as saying, “We agreed that we will demystify the rhino issue by selling horn powder in clinics as well as pharmacies in all the Kaza member states.”

It’s illegal

Selling rhino horn powder in clinics and pharmacies? It’s illegal.

The sale of rhino horn products was banned internationally by CITES in 1976, and China (“officially”) removed rhino horn from the Chinese medicine pharmacopeia in 1993.

All of the partner states, except Angola, are CITES member countries.

The main rhino horn consumer countries, currently Vietnam (1994) and China (1981), are also signatories.

However, it is important to note that CITES itself is an international agreement between governments: Member countries are responsible for enforcing the Convention at the national level.

(Read the text of the Convention here.)

No mention of ‘rhino horn powder’

The KAZA-TFCA website notes that the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was “officially launched” on March 15^the, 2012, at an event in Katima Mulilo, Namibia.

The KAZA Ministers in their strategic policy direction have selected tourism as the major driver of sustainable economic development for the TFCA.

The alleged plan to “sell rhino horn powder” was not mentioned.

If indeed there is no truth to this scheme, here’s to hoping the KAZA partners put a quick end to the speculation.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

After being released on bail, unscrupulous members of the game industry continue to have access to rhinos.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing elements of South Africa’s rhino crisis has been the apparent involvement of people from the wildlife industry, including veterinarians, professional hunters, safari operators, and game capturers.

Yet what may be even more shocking is that, since 2010, only two ‘game industry insiders’ have actually been jailed for their crimes.

The others seem to have returned to business as usual, with unrestricted access to the very animals they are accused of plundering.

Groenewald’s veterinary accomplices still working with rhinos

Conservationists around the world were shaken to the core when veterinarians, Karel Toet and Manie du Plessis, were arrested in 2010 for their alleged involvement in killing rhinos and rhino horn trafficking.

However, these men continue to practice in their field – even with rhinos.

An alarming article featured last year in the Afrikaans newspaper, Beeld, reported that Toet and du Plessis were involved in the relocation of rhino calf that had been orphaned in Limpopo Province.

The calf’s mother was tragically killed for her horn.

It is also interesting to note that a 2010 segment featured on the popular South African television news show, Carte Blanche suggests the duo could be connected to an attempt to kill a black rhino named ‘Phila’.

Given that Phila was in a high security boma with secret access doors, it’s hard to ignore the fact that these vets knew it inside out.

It appears Toet has also been involved in other rhino relocations in Limpopo, despite facing criminal charges at the time — and for which he will be reappearing in court next month.

Why M99?

In July of 2010, The Mercury reported that controversial lion breeder, game farmer, and professional hunter, Marius Prinsloo, was arrested for contravening the Medicines and Related Substances Act.

Authorities seized four bottles of M99 from his aircraft at Tempe Airfield in the Free State. (M99 is a scheduled veterinary drug frequently used by organized crime syndicates in their sophisticated rhino killing sprees.)

A later article in The Cape Times indicates that Prinsloo was released on bail and was supposed to return to court in November 2010, but updates on the case seem to be quite scarce.

Prinsloo’s trophy hunting website (called ‘Ingulule Safaris’) states that it is operating near the Botswana border in South Africa’s North West province and, disturbingly, even offers rhino hunting opportunities.

Posts made by Prinsloo on an AfricaHunting.com forum suggest Ingulule Safaris has been active as recently as 16 February 2012.

Game capturer accused of selling stockpiled horns

Coena Smith, a game capturer with over 25 years of experience, was arrested in February 2010 for allegedly selling 300 kg of stockpiled rhino horns.

Smith later claimed the stockpiled horns had been stolen from his farm property and that he had been set up, according to a November 2010 article published in Mail & Guardian.

This week Smith claimed that the rhino charges were a set-up.

“The horns, which came from a black rhino and which I kept in store legally with all the permits, were stolen from me,” he said.

His trial has twice been postponed and his most recently scheduled court date – which was supposed to have taken place in February 2011 – has come and gone, but it seems the status of his case remains unknown, as no further updates have been reported by the media.

The Mail & Guardian story claimed that Smith had, at that time, resigned from his wildlife-related companies and “handed the reins to his sons”.

However, the Waterberg area’s ‘Oljaco Game Dealers‘ website suggests otherwise.

The company is also linked to a wildlife auction site in Vaalwater.

Smith also favors ‘legalizing’ the rhino horn trade.

Smith said he believed the spike in poaching would stop once game farmers were allowed to sell rhino horn freely into the market.

“Other game farmers have 400 legal horns they are just sitting on,” he said. “Just think what flooding the market with horns could do to stop poaching.”

Darting rhinos is no easy job

The increasing frequency with which “M99 chopper attacks” have been occurring in recent years suggests the involvement of trained and experienced individuals, many of whom would be found within the wildlife industry.

Veterinarians would be needed to supply drugs, while either they or skilled game capturers would be needed to actually dart the animals – a tall order that could not be easily filled by any average Joe off the street.

The equipment needed to carry out these activities is likely to be sourced from the wildlife industry, either voluntarily, with backdoor assistance, or even through thievery.

For example, at least four dart rifles were reported stolen by Mpumalanga-based ‘Ngongoni Game Reserve’ from their facilities in September 2010, along with multiple other pieces of game capture equipment.

’Game-industry white guys’ escaping justice?

Indeed, unscrupulous individuals hiding behind the cloak of conservation seem to be literally getting away with murder.

TRAFFIC’s Dr. Tom Milliken, an expert on rhino horn and ivory trade, recently expressed his concern about this unsavory situation in a Business Day article.

But the proof in the pudding will be if those South African game-industry white guys who are involved in rhino crime get similar sentences. Then we’ll start to see things turned around.

To date, at least 37 ‘white guys’ have been arrested in connection with rhino crimes since 2006 and only two have been jailed.

Two of the 37 – Riaan Vermaak and Ewart Potgeiter – were expected to appear in court regarding their bail applications yesterday, according to the Independent Online.

If their applications have been approved, the proportion of these individuals who’ve been released on bail would increase to about 95%.

Read more about the involvement of ‘game-industry white guys’ in the surging rhino massacre here.

Image created by author.

Sarah Pappin

I am a writer for Saving Rhinos, as well as for her sister blog, Project Pangolin. You may know me from my previous role at Bush Warriors. I am a biologist-turned-writer, with a BSc in wildlife science from Oregon State University. When I'm not blogging, I enjoy loud music, creating art, hula hooping, and being outdoors.

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See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

American rodeo champ and camel trainer busted for smuggling rhino horns.

One of the suspects arrested in the US rhino horn investigation known as “Operation Crash”, Wade Steffen, is a former rodeo star and 2010 co-champion at the All-American ProRodeo Finals in Waco, Texas.

Steffen has not competed in the rodeo circuit since 2011, after he was attacked by a camel. He was rescued by friends who apparently gouged out the camel’s eye with a pitchfork.

According to a 55-page criminal complaint, Steffen sent seven black rhinoceros horns to a Southern California nail salon, which served as a front for a rhino horn smuggling operation.

Seven suspects in total, including Steffen and the nail salon owner Mai Nguyen, were arrested last month after 18 months of investigation.

Steffen is reportedly in custody at the Jack Harwell Detention Center, awaiting transfer to California where he is expected to face charges of conspiracy and violations of the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine; for violating the Lacey Act, five years and $250,000; and for violating the Endangered Species Act, one year and $100,000.

Image by M1st91 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.

The US continues its investigation into illegal rhino horn trafficking.

Court documents filed in the US federal investigation “Operation Crash” have revealed that Jim Lolli of Lolli Brothers Livestock Market in Macon, MO, and former Macon Police Chief Scott Ziebarth may be connected to a rhino horn trafficking ring.

According to the 55-page filing, Lolli and Ziebarth have ties to four of the seven people recently arrested in an undercover investigation: Jimmy Kha, Felix Kha, Mai Nguyen, and Wade Steffen.

Lolli received eight wire transfers totaling $66,000 from Felix Kha.

In addition, the Lolli Brothers Livestock Special Sales account at the Atlanta State Bank received $121,512 in wire transfers from the Khas, and nearly $1 million in cash.

A review of bank accounts maintained by Jim Lolli shows that one account, Lolli Brothers Livestock Special Sales at the Atlanta State Bank, has received 9 checks to Wade Steffen totaling $19,494, 3 checks to Molly Blackburn [Steffen's wife] totaling $48,206, 14 wire transfers from Felix and/or Jimmy Kha, 51 cash deposits totaling for $935,961, and 2 internal transfers between accounts for $40,000, each in January 2011, with a note specifying that it pertained to a “surplus horn commission.”

Lolli is said to have mailed a total of 18 black rhino horns to Win Lee Corporation (owned by Kha).

Records obtained from the United States Postal Service show that Jim Lolli has mailed 19 packages from Macon, Missouri, to Win Lee Corporation, in California since January 26, 2010. Seven of the known packages have been opened pursuant to federally authorized search warrants in the Central District of California and found a total of 18 rhinoceros horns.

The USFWS found that no CITES export certificates had been issued to Lolli.

Regarding former police chief Ziebarth, undercover investigators observed him picking up Mai Nguyen, Jimmy Kha and Felix Kha from the Kansas City Airport on more than one occasion during August and September 2011.

Ziebarth and Lolli sold a rhino horn to a federal agent in November 2011; in a recorded telephone conversation, Lolli told the agent he tries to keep things “pretty near legal”.

Nguyen is Jimmy Kha’s girlfriend and the owner of a Southern California nail salon, where packages containing rhino horns were received from Wade Steffen.

The Steffen Group had recently sent four packages containing a total of seven rhinoceros horns to Joline’s Nails on January 23, 2012, January 25, 2012, February 1, 2012, and February 2, 2012.

To see a list of the seven people arrested so far, check out US Busts Rhino Horn Trafficking Ring: Over 30 Rhino Horns Seized, Seven Arrested [Video].

Watch the video from KTVO news:

Also named in the criminal complaint was John Brommel of Texas, who mailed packages “in a manner consistent with those that were found to have contained rhinoceros horns” to businesses owned by Kha and Ngyuen.

Brommel is the coordinator of World Class Big Game Trophy Mount and Western Auction in Fort Worth, Texas, which has auctioned off Black rhinoceros taxidermy mounts.

An affiliate of Wade Steffen, identified as Lance Jowers, purchased several rhino horn mounts at the World Class Big Game Trophy Mount and Western Auction, where covert surveillance was conducted by USFWS Special Agents.

Steffen, Nguyen, and the Khas were arrested along with three other people last week, and face maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy; five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for Lacey Act violations; and up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for violations of the Endangered Species Act.

(Rhino horns were sold at a Lolli Brothers auction in September 2011. See Rhino Horns Take Top Dollar from Phone Bidder at US Auction.)

Compiled from the federal criminal complaint available via KTVO news.

Image © iStockphoto.com

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. I am the Editor of Rhino Horn is Not Medicine and Project Pangolin, author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave, and the host of Behind the Schemes. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.