A traveller who led the fight to block the eviction of Dale Farm is facing extradition to the US after serving his sentence for a string of rhino horn burglaries.
Richard Sheridan is facing up to ten years in prison for his role in a gang that stole £57 million of jade and rhinoceros artefacts in the UK and ransacked European museums, stately homes and auction houses for five years.
Sheridan, 47, was the self-appointed spokesman for the travellers at Dale Farm, in Billericay, Essex, during the bitter £18 million eviction of Europe’s largest illegal settlement, which ended in violent clashes between police and outside protesters in 2011.
He is a member of the Rathkeale Rovers, named after their home town in Co Limerick, who are subject to extradition orders or international arrest warrants for smuggling rhino horn. With a single horn fetching up to £250,000, the criminal empire is estimated to have raised more than £100 million. His conviction this week with his father and 12 other men at Birmingham crown court exposed his senior position in the gang.
Sheridan is to be sent to the US to be tried for smuggling after police caught him with a libation cup carved from rhino horn in London in 2014. The cup has been traced to an American auction house.