An Irishman has been jailed in the US for trafficking a rhinoceros horn.
50-year-old Richard Sheridan was sentenced to 14 months in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in trafficking a ‘libation cup’ made from an endangered rhino horn.
Mr Sheridan, who has an address at Cottenham, Cambridge in the UK, was charged with conspiracy to traffic the horn along with fellow Irishman Michael Hegarty.
The 2014 indictment also charged Sheridan with smuggling the horn out of the US.
He was extradited to the US from the UK and pleaded guilty to the trafficking the horn on August 29th. He was sentenced today.
Following his own guilty plea in November 2017, Hegarty was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
According to court documents, the men bought the cup made from endangered rhino horn at an auction house in Rockingham, North Carolina in 2012.
They then smuggled it out of the US.
US Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said Sheridan conspired to “profit from the demise of one of the world’s most endangered species”.
“We will continue to work with our international partners to fight the trade in protected and endangered species, and organized criminal enterprises associated with it,” he said.
US Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan said every case that serves to deter the illegal poaching and trafficking of critically endanger wildlife is “important to the global effort to preserve these iconic specimens for our children and the generations to come.”
“Only through the continued, collective efforts of the international community will the goal of preserving species under threat of extinction be realized,” she said.
She commended the agencies on both sides of the Atlantic that worked together to achieve the conviction.
