irish travellers rhino horn

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Inside the ballsy irish traveller gang that stole millions of pounds worth of rhino horn.

READ ON MOTHERBOARD: The Rhino Horn Crisis and the Darknet

Rosie the rhino at Ipswich Museum, before her horn was stolen

A crime scene photo of the hole made in the wall at the Durham University Oriental Museum

(Illustration by Julia Scheele)

From left to right: Michael Hegarty, Richard "Kerry" O'Brien Junior and Daniel "Turkey" O'Brien

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Eight men convicted in French court for trafficking rhino horn and ivory

Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison terms

A French court has convicted eight men including members of an Irish crime gang for trafficking rhino horn and ivory between Europe and east Asia.

Four men – three Irish and one English – said to be members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang were given prison terms, though two were spared jail as the sentences were suspended.

The court also imposed a total of €316,000 (£270,000) in fines.

Three of the men were not present at the special court in Rennes in west France and are the subject of international arrest warrants.

Charlotte Nithart, president of the Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) environmental group, welcomed the judgment she said was “educational and dissuasive … for all those who engage in wildlife trafficking and speculate on species threatened with extinction”.

“Before trafficking, there is poaching which causes social and environmental devastation,” she said after Wednesday’s verdict.

French prosecutors began investigating after police stopped a BMW car in a random motorway traffic inspection in September 2015 and found four uncertified elephant tusks and €32,800 in cash.

The occupants of the car, some of whom claimed they were antique dealers, were later found to be part of an international network of rhino horn and ivory traffickers including several of Chinese and Vietnamese origin.

Police said the Irish and English suspects were members of the Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal clan named after a town outside Limerick in southern Ireland. Rooted in the Travelling community, gang members have been linked to a bewildering range of scams across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia.

Detectives discovered the smugglers had two workshops in France to transform ivory and rhino horn into powder or flakes and other objects that were then exported to Vietnam and China to be used in traditional medicine.

One large horn weighing nearly 15kg was seized during the investigation. Robin des Bois said it would have been worth around €13m in exported products once processed.

Robin des Bois alleged that auction houses in Cannes, Toulouse and Le Puy had facilitated the export of tusks to Vietnam and China.

The Rathkeale Rovers were the target of a joint investigation by European police in 2010 that led to 31 people being arrested, including for the theft of rhino horns, the Europol police agency says on its website.

The gang has traded in illicit antiques , cigarettes, electrical goods, vintage cars and fake coronavirus test certificates.

It has tarmacking scams that con customers and contractors, earning nicknames in several languages: “asfaltaris Irlandese” in Italy, “teerkolonne” in Germany and “les faux bitumeurs” in France. The tarmackers have also reportedly operated in South America, Mexico, the US and South Africa.

Europol warned in February that members of the Rathkeale Rovers were using a mobile phone app to falsify coronavirus test results which were then sold to travellers.

In 2017 a federal court in Miami sentenced Michael Hegarty, regarded as a senior member of the gang, to 18 months in prison for smuggling a libation cup – a drinking vessel carved from rhino horn – from the US to England.

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Irish gang on trial in France for alleged rhino horn smuggling

Rennes (France) (AFP) –

Issued on: 06/09/2021 - 12:48

Nine alleged members of an international network of rhino horn and ivory traffickers went on trial in France on Monday after an investigation that shed light on illicit trade links between Europe and east Asia.

French prosecutors started their probe after a random motorway traffic inspection by police in September 2015 that led to the discovery of several elephant tusks and 32,800 euros ($38,900) in cash in a BMW.

The occupants of the car, who claimed they were antique dealers, were allegedly members of the Rathkeale Rovers, an Irish crime gang with roots in the Traveller community.

The nine defendants on trial in the town of Rennes, which include alleged traders of Chinese and Vietnamese origin, face up to 10 years in jail and heavy fines, although two of them are on the run.

French police discovered that ivory and rhino horn were being turned into powder, flakes, and other objects on French soil before being exported to Vietnam and China where they are used in traditional medicine.

An exceptionally large horn weighing nearly 15 kilos was seized during the investigation, which would have earned around $15 million (13 million euros) once processed at Asian market prices at the time, according to environmental group Robin des Bois.

Around 40 elephant tusks were also discovered.

Robin des Bois, which is observing the trial, alleged that auction houses in the French towns of Cannes, Toulouse and Le Puy had facilitated the export of tusks to Vietnam and China.

"Before smuggling, its bargaining and swindles, there is poaching with its cruelties," the group said in a statement.

"Wildlife trafficking also contributes to the destruction and impoverishment of ecosystems, encourages speculation in elephant ivory and rhino horns and thus stimulates poaching."

The Rathkeale Rovers were the target of a joint investigation by European police in 2010 that led to 31 people being arrested, including for the theft of rhino horns, the Europol police agency says on its website.

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Irish man’s €18.5m libel claim over rhino horn article dismissed

Richard kerry o’brien sued bloomberg businessweek over alleged falsehoods.

Undated handout photo issued by Durham Police of the 14 men who where linked to the theft. On the very bottom left is Richard Kerry O’Brien. Photograph: Durham Police/PA Wire

A judge in New York has dismissed a $20 million (€18.5 million) libel and emotional distress suit taken by a Limerick man over an article about him concerning the theft of rhino horns and Chinese artefacts.

Richard Kerry O’Brien sued Bloomberg Businessweek over an article he claimed falsely portrayed him as the mastermind behind a multi-million euro global criminal conspiracy involving the theft of the items. He claimed damages for libel and emotional distress.

A New York Supreme Court judge dismissed all parts of the complaint, including one claim that the authors of the January 2014 article should have independently tested rhino horns, then in UK police custody, before the piece was published. The horns turned out to be fake, but that was only known long after publication.

Mr O’Brien, whose two sons and others members of his extended family are serving time in the UK for their involvement in a multi-million euro rhino horn and Chinese artefact theft and smuggling scheme, is not giving up on the action. He has filed an appeal against the February judgment.

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In the appellate court filing, O’Brien’s lawyer argues that presiding Judge Lucy Billings erred in dismissing the complaint. Judge Billings ruled that elements of the story were covered by privilege, while others were not defamatory.

“Contrary to these false claims, the entire article is a malicious regurgitation of Irish Garda and Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) falsehoods that fails to observe basic standards of journalism,” Mr O’Brien’s lawyer Faisal Moghul argued.

The court filing said: “By materially concealing several critical details related to Garda and CAB investigation of rhino horn trafficking, the article deliberately crafts a false narrative designed to give the misleading impression that Plaintiff O’Brien is a criminal mastermind of a global smuggling organisation.”

The full judgement was published February 22 and the appeal filed March 1.

The complaint stemmed from an article entitled “The Irish Clan Behind Europe’s Rhino-Horn Theft Epidemic”. Bloomberg LP was sued, along with the author and the editor of the piece.

The article included reporting on a September 2013 raid carried out by English police as part of Operation Oakleaf, a multi-country investigation into the theft of horns and artefacts. Fourteen people, described in court as members of the Rathkeale Rovers criminal gang, were convicted and sentenced last year in connection with a conspiracy that involved stolen items worth up to €70 million.

Among those convicted were two of Mr O’Brien’s sons, John Kerry O’Brien (26) and Richard Kerry O’Brien junior (31).

Mr O’Brien snr was arrested in the 2013 raid but never charged with any offence. In his complaint, Mr O’Brien said that his bail was later cancelled and that horns found during the raid turned out to be fake. But bail was cancelled in November 2014, while the fact they were fake was not established until July 2015, according to a report Mr O’Brien himself filed in support of his complaint. Both these happened long after the article was published.

“While plaintiff also maintains that defendants were irresponsible in not testing the rhinoceros horns before reporting that the horns were real, defendants owed no duty to uncover any error in the official investigation by conducting their own investigation,” said the judge. All of that information was privileged as it was based on an official investigation, she said.

The judge also dismissed Mr O’Brien’s complaints that the article named him “King of the Travellers” and noted that he built and sold 20 houses in Rathkeale.

“The article merely connects the Rathkeale Rovers to the Irish Travellers and plaintiff to the Travellers, but does not connect plaintiff to the Rathkeale Rovers,” she wrote.

“Absent this connection, naming plaintiff the ‘King of the Travellers’ does not carry a defamatory connotation concerning him.”

The article never said Mr O’Brien laundered money through house building and selling, as he claimed it did in his complaint, the judge found.

At the sentencing hearing of the 14 members of the Rathkeale Rovers gang last April, Birmingham Crown Court heard that seven were linked to one family’s home in the Co Limerick town.

Judge Murray Creed named the O’Brien family home in Rathkeale as being at the heart of the conspiracy.

“It was the family home for some of the conspirators . . . There were phone calls throughout the conspiracy to Rathkeale, either to business numbers or home numbers,” said the judge.

“It is a conspiracy both sophisticated, skilled and persistent, involved significant cultural loss to the UK of museum-quality artefacts and items from international collections.”

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Rhino Horn Trafficker Arrested and Detained

Earlier today, a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn detained an Irish national who was arrested on Saturday and charged in a complaint for false labeling in connection with his alleged role in international rhinoceros horn smuggling in violation of the Lacey Act.  The arrest and charge is a result of “Operation Crash,” a nationwide effort led by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the black market trade of endangered rhinoceros horns.

The Department of Justice filed a complaint in federal court in the Eastern District of New York alleging that Michael Slattery, Jr., a 25-year-old Irish national, fraudulently purchased a set of black rhinoceros horns in Texas and then travelled to New York and used a falsified document to sell the horns for $50,000. 

The charge and arrest were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Robert G. Dreher, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division.  According to the complaint filed in on September 14, 2013, in 2010 Slattery traveled from England to Texas to acquire black rhinoceros horns.  Slattery and others then used a day laborer with a Texas driver’s license as a straw buyer to purchase two horns from an auction house in Austin.  The complaint charges that Slattery and his group then traveled to New York where they presented a fraudulent Endangered Species Bill of Sale and sold those two and two other horns to an individual for $50,000.        

According to court records and government statements made in court, Slattery is a member of The Rathkeale Rovers (also known as the “Irish Travelers”), which are tight-knit extended family groups that live a nomadic lifestyle.  The group leverages the rising price for rhinoceros horns in the black market to be used for traditional medicines and carving.  According to information made public by Europol, the Rathkeale Rovers have been involved in an epidemic of raids on museums in Europe in which rhinoceros horns have been stolen.

 Rhinoceros are an herbivore species of prehistoric origin and one of the largest remaining mega-fauna on earth. They have no known predators other than humans.  All species of rhinoceros are protected under United States and international law, and all black rhinoceros species are endangered.  Since 1976, trade in rhinoceros horn has been regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty signed by more than 175 countries around the world to protect fish, wildlife and plants that are or may become imperiled due to the demands of international markets. Nevertheless, the demand for rhinoceros horn and black market prices have skyrocketed in recent years due to the value that some cultures have placed on ornamental carvings, good luck charms or alleged medicinal purposes, leading to a decimation of the global rhinoceros population.  In China, there is a tradition dating back centuries of intricately carved rhinoceros horn cups.  Drinking from such a cup was believed to bring good health and such carvings are highly prized by collectors. As a result of this demand, rhino populations have declined by more than 90 percent since 1970.  South Africa, for example, has witnessed a rapid escalation in poaching of live animals, rising from 13 in 2007 to more than 618 in 2012.   

The charge in the complaint is merely and allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Nestor of the Eastern District of New York and Trial Attorney Gary N. Donner of the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division.

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Irish Traveller crime gang targeted in US over stolen rhino horns

An organized traveller gang from rathkeale in co limerick is being targeted by police in the united states for t....

An organized Traveller gang from Rathkeale in Co Limerick is being targeted by police in the United States for their multi-million dollar global trade in stolen rhino horn. According to the Irish Examiner , the crackdown in the US has resulted in the seizure of 37 rhino horns, which authorities estimate as valued between $8m and $10m. The huge police operation, named Operation Crash, to date, has not arrested any members of the notorious criminal network called the Rathkeale Rovers. The gang, whose reach has spread across China, Australia, and North and South America, are also heavily involved in tarmac fraud, the distribution of counterfeit goods, organized robbery, money laundering, and drug trafficking. The EU police agency Europol have said the gang sourced the rhino horns, which are worth between €25,000 and €200,000 each, by targeting antique dealers, auction houses, art galleries, museums, private collections, and zoos. They sold them by "exploiting" international auction houses in France, the US, and China. Under UN laws, trading in rhino horns is illegal as rhinos are an endangered species. Three agencies in the US - the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Homeland Security Department and the Internal Revenue Service - set up an operation last February to uncover the buyers of the horns. Eight people were arrested, including a rodeo cowboy, a Chinese businessman, a Vietnamese nail salon owner, and a US antiques expert. Edward Grace of the US Fish and Wildlife Service said that more arrests are expected in the coming months. "This case also involves other Irish buying rhino horns in the US," Mr Grace told AFP. "I can’t go into a lot of details on it." It was the activities of two Irish men from Rathkeale, Co Limerick, that brought the attention of US law enforcement to the trade. Richard O’Brien and Michael Hegarty were arrested after paying undercover agents in Colorado some $17,000 for four black rhino horns. They were charged with conspiracy, smuggling and money laundering, and served six months in a US prison, reported the Irish Examiner. Grace said the trade in illegal rhino horns was "really being fuelled by the Irish Travellers", but said Chinese and Vietnamese criminals were also involved.

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Traveller gang targeted over stolen rhino horns

A notorious Traveller criminal network which dominates a multi-million dollar global trade in stolen rhino horn is being targeted in a huge police operation in the United States.

A crackdown in the US has resulted so far in the seizure of 37 rhino horns, which authorities there have valued at between $8m (€6m) and $10m (€7.7m).

Operation Crash has not to date arrested any members of the so-called Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal Traveller network, originally from Rathkeale in Co Limerick.

The Rathkeale Rovers have become notorious across Europe and beyond for their involvement in the highly profitable rhino horn trade.

Last July, the EU police agency, Europol, said the Traveller gang was an “organised crime group” which was also heavily involved in tarmac fraud, the distribution of counterfeit goods, organised robbery, money laundering and drug trafficking.

It said their reach spread across North and South America, China and Australia and that they used “intimidation and violence” in their activities.

Europol estimate that rhino horns, which are used in traditional medicine and decoration, were worth between €25,000 and €200,000 each.

The agency said the Irish gang sourced horns by targeting antique dealers, auction houses, art galleries, museums, private collections and zoos.

It said they sold them by “exploiting” international auction houses in France, the US and China.

Europol said the gang had invested “significant proceeds of crime in Ireland — mainly in real estate and other assets”.

Rhino horn is sold in Chinese traditional medicine, as an aphrodisiac, as a decoration or to produce luxury products.

Trading in rhino horns is illegal under UN laws as they are an endangered species.

Last February, three agencies in the US — the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Homeland Security Department and the Internal Revenue Service — set up a huge operation to uncover buyers of rhino horn.

Edward Grace of the US Fish and Wildlife Service said 37 rhino horns were seized in the country’s biggest ever operation in this area.

Among eight people arrested were a rodeo cowboy, a Chinese businessman, a Vietnamese nail salon owner and a US antiques expert.

Though no Irish people were arrested in the crackdown, more arrests are expected in the coming months, Mr Grace said.

“This case also involves other Irish buying rhino horns in the US,” Mr Grace told AFP. “I can’t go into a lot of details on it.”

He said criminals scoured the country for trophies of the animals hunted illegally in South Africa and brought back in the US in recent decades.

It was the activities of two Irish men, Richard O’Brien and Michael Hegarty, from Rathkeale, Co Limerick, that brought the attention of US law enforcement to the trade.

The duo were arrested after paying undercover agents in Colorado some $17,000 for four black rhino horns.

They told agents they planned to hide them in furniture which they would ship to Ireland.

They were charged with conspiracy, smuggling and money laundering, and served six months in a US prison.

Mr Grace said the trade in illegal rhino horn was “really being fuelled by the Irish Travellers”, but said Chinese and Vietnamese criminals were also involved.

He likened the crime to the drugs trade: “It is similar to an operation of a drug cartel. You have the higher ups who provide the money, the mid-level lieutenants who get the couriers and the smugglers, so you have the whole organised criminal element here.”

In the United States, it is illegal to sell most types of rhino horns across state lines and none may be imported or exported without a special permit.

The maximum penalties are a $250,000 fine and five years in prison for conspiracy and trafficking of endangered species, and $100,000 and one year in prison for violating the Endangered Species Act.

Since illegal trafficking fuels poaching of endangered rhinos abroad, “part of the responsibility worldwide to help protect these species falls on the United States,” said Mr Grace.

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