A Tanzanian court has sentenced Yang Fenglan, a prominent Chinese businesswoman dubbed the “Ivory Queen”, to 15 years in jail. She was accused of leading one of Africa’s biggest ivory smuggling rings, illegally exporting more than $2.5m (£1.7m) worth of elephant tusks to East Asia.
Fenglan, 69, denied the charges. She was arrested after a high-speed car chase in October 2015 and charged with ivory smuggling between 2000 and 2014. Investigators say she was a key link between poachers in East Africa and buyers in China for more than a decade.
The BBC’s Humphrey Mgonja in Dar Es Salaam reports that the Tanzanian state is to repossess Fenglan’s property to recover the proceeds from her businesses.
