Yang Feng Glan, nicknamed the “queen of Ivory” was tracked down by Tanzania's National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) over the course of a year.
Having previously confessed to the crime of ivory trafficking, Yang faces 20-30 years behind bars if convicted. She was arrested together with a number of other Chinese ivory traffickers.
According to the Elephant League Organisation, Yang recently disappeared from Tanzania, moving to Uganda, but returned a week ago, when the task force swiftly moved and arrested her.
Information released by the task force indicate that she has been trafficking ivory since 2006, working with the most high-ranking poachers in the country and in the region. She is believed to have connections to various companies abroad, all Chinese-owned, and circulates in the upper echelons of Chinese citizens living and working in Tanzania.
Tanzania has been the ground zero of elephant poaching in East Africa for the past several years, having lost 85,000 elephants between 2009 and 2014, according to a recent elephant census in the country.
“It's the news that we all have been waiting for, for years”, says Andrea Crosta, co-founder of the Elephant Action League and WildLeaks. “Finally, a high profile Chinese trafficker is in jail.”
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