This Woman Allegedly Led an Elephant-Slaughter Ring
‘Queen Ivory’ helped fund terrorists
by DAVID AXE
Since at least 2006, Yang Feng Glan — a 66-year-old Chinese national — has allegedly led an ivory smuggling ring in Tanzania that oversaw the slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of elephants.
Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit followed Yang — the “Ivory Queen” — for a year, Elephant Action League reported on Oct. 8.
“She recently disappeared from Tanzania, moving to Uganda, but returned one week ago, when the Task Force swiftly moved and arrested her,” Elephant Action League explained. “After confessing to many of her crimes she has been taken to the high court of Dar es Salaam facing a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years imprisonment.”
Poachers have killed as many as 85,000 of Tanzania’s 140,000 elephants since 2009 in order to supply trinket markets in China, Vietnam and other countries. Blood ivory is a major source of revenue for many of Africa’s worst terror groups, including Al Shabab and the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The Chinese navy has also been implicated in the illegal ivory trade. Bending to public pressure, in September Chinese president Xi Jinping agreed to work with the United States to shut down ivory markets.
