Two Sentenced for Trafficking Ivory, Rhinoceros Horns from Africa
A federal judge in Seattle has sentenced two foreign nationals to prison for trafficking elephant ivory and rhinoceros horns from Africa.
Herdade Lokua, 34, and Jospin Mujangi, 32, both from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), pleaded guilty to conspiracy and Lacey Act charges in July. Lokua was sentenced to 20 months behind bars, while Mujangi received a sentence of 14 months at their sentencing November 1, 2022.
The arrest and investigation were part of “Operation Kuluna,” a cooperative investigation between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Seattle, the government of the DRC, and the U.S. Embassy in the DRC’s capital Kinshasa.
According to the Office of Public Affairs on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) website, Special Agent in Charge of HSI operations in Seattle Robert Hammer said, “HSI is proud of our international public and private sector partnerships who enabled the success of this investigation and will continue to leverage those partnerships to target and dismantle future trafficking organizations who seek profit over the risk of extinction.”
The court found that Lokua was the ringleader of the trafficking operation, with the goal of shipping a cargo container full of “elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn, and pangolin scales to Seattle.”
Both defendants admitted to agreeing to the scheme back in Nov. 2019. They then worked with a middleman and conducted several small sales to “build trust with the buyers,” including one where ivory was to be “cut into smaller pieces and painted black” with the packages labeled as “containing wood.”
The men said they sent nearly five pounds of rhinoceros horns to Seattle in June 2021, using a similar scheme, with payment to be routed through a bank in China.
The duo was arrested in Edmonds, Washington in Nov. 2021, after striking a deal with prospective buyers to sell wildlife parts worth $3.5 million. However, the buyers turned out to be undercover federal agents.
After the arrests, law enforcement seized 2,067 pounds of ivory and 75 pounds of pangolin scales in Kinshasa.
“I commend our Homeland Security Investigations and DRC partners in stopping this trafficking ring before tons of protected wildlife products entered the illegal market,” stated Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Elephants, rhinoceros, and pangolins are all animals on the protected species list. They are facing threats from poaching and habitat loss.
The Lacey Act is the oldest wildlife trafficking law in the United States.