Rhino Smuggling Kingpin Pleads Guilty in New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. – Zhifei Li, 29, of Shandong, China, the owner of Overseas Treasure Finding, pleaded guilty today to a total of 11 counts of wildlife trafficking crimes.

Li, who was arrested in January 2013, was charged with one count of conspiracy to smuggle and violate the Lacey Act, seven counts of smuggling, one count of illegal wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act, and two counts of making false wildlife documents.

The crimes were committed as part of an international rhino smuggling conspiracy in which 30 rhinoceros horns and numerous objects made from rhino horn and elephant ivory worth more than $4.5 million were smuggled from the United States to China.

Li admitted to being the ‘boss’ of three antique dealers in the United States whom he paid to help obtain wildlife items and smuggle them to him via Hong Kong. One of those individuals was Qiang Wang, aka ‘Jeffrey Wang,’ who was sentenced to serve 37 months in prison on Dec. 5, 2013, in the Southern District of New York.

‘The take-down of the Li smuggling ring is an important development in our effort to enforce wildlife protection laws,’ said Acting Assistant Attorney General Robert G. Dreher. ‘Rhino horn can sell for more than gold and is just as rare, but rhino horn and elephant ivory are more than mere commodities.’

Li will be sentenced on a later date. He was arrested as part of ‘Operation Crash,’ a nationwide effort led by the USFWS and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the black market trade of rhinoceros horns and other protected species.

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