Irish National Sentenced to Prison for Trafficking in Rhinoceros Horns

An Irish national was sentenced in federal court in Waco, Texas, today to 12 months in prison for conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act in relation to illegal rhinoceros horn trafficking, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice.

John Slattery, who was arrested on Aug. 1, 2019, in Ireland, was extradited to the United States for his role in trafficking horns from black rhinoceros. Slattery pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic in horns from black rhinoceros on July 7, 2020.

On May 13, 2014, a federal grand jury sitting in Waco, Texas, returned an indictment that has since been unsealed, charging Slattery and a co-defendant, Patrick Sheridan, with conspiring to traffic in horns from black rhinoceros. In addition to conspiracy, the indictment charges substantive violations of the Lacey Act for wildlife trafficking and making a false wildlife document.

According to documents filed with the court, in September 2010, Slattery traveled with his brother, Michael Slattery Jr. and Patrick Sheridan to a taxidermy shop in Austin, Texas, to purchase rhinoceros horns. Upon their first visit to the shop, John Slattery and his co-conspirators were informed that the horns could only be sold to a resident of Texas. The following day, Slattery enlisted the help of an individual (now deceased), a Texas resident who acted as a straw buyer, to enable the three co-conspirators to purchase the rhinoceros horns.


https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/irish-national-sentenced-prison-trafficking-rhinoceros-horns