2 DRC residents plead guilty for wildlife trafficking in Seattle

Two residents of the Democratic Republic of Congo have pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle to wildlife trafficking. The pair is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

The case began in 2019 with a plan to smuggle elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Seattle.

According to federal prosecutors, in August and September of 2020 two DRC residents worked with a middleman to send 49 pounds of ivory from Kinshasa to Seattle. Then in June of last year, the pair sent nearly five pounds of rhinoceros horn to Seattle.

They were arrested after traveling to Seattle in November 2021 to meet with would-be buyers who turned out to be federal agents. After the arrests, agents in Kinshasa seized more than 2,000 pounds of ivory and 75 pounds of pangolin scales with an estimated black market value of $3.5 million.