A gang of travellers based in Britain created such a volatile black market in stolen rhino horn that they precipitated the animal’s spiral towards extinction worldwide, a senior US official has said.
The gang, whose ringleaders were convicted of a burglary plot this week, were so prolific in plundering rhino horns from museums and homes in the past five years that rivals in Asia took to poaching en masse as the price outstripped gold, cocaine and diamonds.
“When you have an organised transnational crime group involved who have the resources, money and smuggling networks to create this tremendous market, that can lead to the extinction of the species,” said Edward Grace, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
In 2012 a Thai gang supplying the Vietnamese market, where crushed horn is used as an aphrodisiac, hired prostitutes to pose as big game hunters to smuggle out poached horns.
Known as the Rathkeale Rovers for their ties to the town in Ireland, members of the O’Brien family are thought to be behind 70 thefts across Europe worth hundreds of millions of pounds. On Monday, the last of 14 were convicted over a conspiracy to steal rhino and jade worth tens of millions of pounds. They face further international arrest warrants, Mr Grace said.