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A prosecutor in a court in the French city of Rennes is asking for prison sentences ranging from two years suspended to 6 years in prison for members of an Irish ivory smuggling gang linked to the traveler community. They were arrested after a random road check carried out by the police in 2015 which led to the discovery of several elephant tusks and € 32,800 in cash.
The nine indicted gang members were guilty of “a real cultural and ecological massacre”, according to the prosecutor, Vincent Mailly.
He called for the heaviest sentences for the four members of the “Rathkeale Rovers”, a criminal group in the Irish traveler community, whose arrest in September 2015 marked the start of the investigation.
Mailly demanded six years for Tom Greene, 33, “an unarmed predator”, who was arrested twice, first for possession of four elephant tusks, and a second time for having a rhino horn.
For gang member Richard O’Riley, 35, who accompanied Greene, Mailly wanted four years in prison.
Mr. Mailly demanded five years in prison, including two years suspended, against David Ta, a 51-year-old businessman in antiques and perfumes. Your would be the brain of a Franco-Vietnamese elephant tusk trafficking network.
He asked for three years, two of which were suspended, for Quan Do Danh, 41, who ran “an ivory carving workshop” to be discovered.
He also demanded two years in prison, including 18 months suspended, against Kit Ching Ha, 56, suspected of having hosted a rhino horn processing workshop and two years suspended against the “Doctor Yang” Daosheng, 58, for smuggling ivory.
One of the defendants could walk as Mailly demanded the release of Quing Jia, who worked as a tour guide linked to the group, due to “lack of evidence”.
(With AFP)
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