A Malaysian man with the title of Datuk Seri was extradited to the United States (US) for allegedly being involved in wildlife smuggling and money laundering.
According to a report by Bernama, 57-year-old Teo Boon Ching, was apparently involved in a conspiracy to smuggle more than 70kgs of rhino horn, worth more than US$725,000 (RM3,371,250.00), as shared by the US Department of Justice.
“Teo was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wildlife smuggling which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and two counts of money laundering which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison,”
“Teo was detained in Thailand on 29 June at the request of the US pursuant to a bilateral extradition agreement,” the US Department of Justice informed in a statement.
He was extradited to the US last Friday (October 7) to face the charges.
Earlier, Teo and his entities were sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department.
Teo was revealed to be the leader of a transnational criminal enterprise based in Asia and runs a large-scale rhino horn smuggling operation in Malaysia and Thailand.
“Teo acts as a specialised smuggler who transports rhino horns from rhino poaching operations in Africa to clients mainly in Asia. He also claimed to be able to ship rhino horn to the US,” the statement added.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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