Ivory Coast Citizen Convicted in New York Federal Court

NEW YORK CITY, 1 August 2001 – A 53-year-old Ivory Coast citizen has been convicted in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York for attempting to smuggle 57 African elephant ivory carvings valued at more than $150,000 into the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Federal District Judge David Trager sentenced Oumar Keita, of Abidjan, Ivory

Coast, to serve 11 months and 10 days in prison following his conviction on charges brought for violations investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District, the U.S. Custom Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The case is another in a continuing effort by Federal authorities to clamp down on illegal smuggling of endangered animals – including the African elephant – whose protection is assured by laws under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Endangered Species Act, and the African Elephant Conservation Act.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigators, the case commenced on

Sept. 17 of last year when Keita arrived at JFK aboard a KLM flight originating in Abidjan. An examination of Keita’s luggage revealed the 57 carvings that had been concealed inside a sand and paper substance designed to resemble stone carvings and hide the ivory’s characteristics

Agents identified the concealment techniques because they were identical to those used in a January 2000, smuggling attempt which resulted in the arrest and subsequent conviction of another Ivory Coast citizen, Bayo Namory. Namory is serving a year in federal prison. When agents opened Kieta’s luggage they also found letters written by Namory from prison to Keita along with business cards listing African art dealers in New York City. Keita’s case was tried late last Friday.

Investigators estimated that the ivory pieces had an appraised value of more than $150,000 in New York City’s African art market, with some of the individual pieces valued at $10,000 to $15,000 each.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit for the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

(US Fish and Wildlife Service)

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