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February 23

International rhino horn smuggling ring cracked

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES -- Federal wildlife investigators in California and other states have cracked an international smuggling ring that trafficked for years in sawed-off rhinoceros horns, which fetch stratospheric prices in Vietnam and China for their supposed cancer-curing powers.

More than 150 federal agents and other local enforcement officers raided homes, businesses and made several arrests in a dozen states over the weekend, including three alleged traffickers in Southern California.

The Fish and Wildlife Service seized more than $1 million in cash, $1 million in gold bars, and diamonds and Rolex watches, along with 20 rhino horns in the raids. Much of that was found at Jimmy Kha's import-export business in Westminster, according to law enforcement officials.

Kha, 49, his girlfriend, Mai Nguyen, 41, of Highland and Kha's son Felix, 26, each face four counts of rhino horn trafficking in violation of federal laws protecting rare and endangered species.

The father and son remain in jail since their arrests Friday and Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport. Nguyen, who owns Joline's Nail shop in Highland, is set to be released on $50,000 bail.

A global run on the rare horns from black and white rhinos has led to an onslaught of poaching in Africa, as well as the ransacking of European museums by organized crime syndicates. In the United States, traders are obtaining and illegally transporting horns from auction houses, antique shops and hunters' trophy walls.

Most of the horns end up in Vietnam, or sometimes China, where a misconception that they can cure cancer makes them "worth more than crack, heroin or gold, pound for pound," said Crawford Allan, North American director of TRAFFIC, a World Wildlife Fund program.

 

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