Ivory Kingpin Arrested, Except She’s a ‘Queen’

DAR ES SALAAM – A Chinese woman known as the ‘Queen of Ivory’ has been arrested in Tanzania, the most important ivory trafficker ever caught in the country, according to a statement released on Thursday.

Yang Feng Glan, 66, has been followed by Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit for over a year, and was one of several people arrested, the Elephant Action League said in a statement.

The league, a U.S.-based campaign group, said Feng (also known as Fenglan) is the vice president of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council and owns a Chinese restaurant at Dar es Salaam station.

Feng recently disappeared from Tanzania, moving to Uganda, but returned a week ago, when the task force arrested her.

On Wednesday Glan appeared at the Kisutu magistrates court in Dar es Salaam, along with Tanzanians Salvius Matembo and Manase Philemon, according to one news report. She was charged with smuggling ivory between 2000 and 2014, although some reports suggested she may have been active since the 1980s. The league said she could face up to 30 years in jail.

According to the league, Feng was a graduate in Swahili and back in the 1970s came to Tanzania as a translator during the construction by the Chinese of the Tazara railway line. She has allegedly been working with the most high-ranking poachers in the country and the region.

“She is connected to various companies abroad, all Chinese-owned, and circulates in the upper echelons of Chinese citizens living and working in Tanzania”, the league’s statement said.

According to a recent elephant census, Tanzania has lost 85,000 elephants between 2009 and 2014.