Rhino-horn traffickers arrested

A Chinese citizen was recently arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly shipping dozens of endangered black-rhinoceros horns.

Jin Zhao Feng was one of seven people arrested in a crackdown across the United States and charged with conspiracy and violation of laws protecting endangered species for their involvement in the lucrative black-market trade in rhinoceros horns, which are used in traditional Asian medicine, according to the Mother Nature Network. Four of the arrests were of members of the U.S.-based trafficking ring that supplied Jin, including one man in Texas who had 37 rhino horns and $337,000 in cash.

“We are taking aggressive action to protect the rhino by investigating and vigorously prosecuting those who are engaged in this brutal trade,” said Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department’s environment and natural resources division.