A Richmond antiques dealer has been sentenced in a U.S. Federal Court to two and a half years in prison for smuggling half a million dollars worth of rhinoceros horns, elephant ivory and coral from the U.S. to Canada.
In addition to the jail term, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Xiao Ju Guan, also known as “Tony” Guan,” to forfeit wildlife items found during a search of his Richmond business, Bao Antiques on Alderbridge Way just east of No. 3 Road, the U.S. department of justice said.
Judge Swain noted Guan’s conduct “feeds demand for the slaughter of rare and already endangered species.”
Guan was arrested in March 2014 as part of “Operation Crash,” a U.S.-wide crackdown on the illegal trafficking in rhinoceros horns, for his role in smuggling rhinoceros horns and items carved from elephant ivory and coral, from auction houses throughout the U.S. to Canada.
Guan was arrested after flying from YVR to New York and buying two endangered black rhinoceros horns from undercover special agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at a storage facility in the Bronx, New York.
After purchasing the horns, Guan had the undercover agents drive him and a female accomplice to a nearby express mail store where he mailed the horns to an address in Point Roberts, Wash.
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