Chinese "Ivory Queen" smuggler sentenced to 15 years jail in Tanzania

Yang Feng Glan sits inside the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania February 19, 2019. [Photo/Reuters].

A prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen” was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Tanzanian court on Tuesday for smuggling the tusks of more than 350 elephants, weighing nearly 2 tonnes, to Asia.

Yang Feng Glan had been charged in October 2015 along with two Tanzanian men with smuggling 860 pieces of ivory between 2000 and 2004 worth Sh13 billion (USD5.6 million). All three denied the charges.