Black rhino horns get member of notorious Irish Travellers extradited to Texas, feds say
A member of the Irish Travellers, a nomadic group, was extradited to the U.S. on charges of trafficking black rhino horns, federal prosecutors say.
John Slattery, an Irish national, is accused of purchasing black rhinoceros horns from a taxidermist in Texas, nearly a decade ago in September 2010, according to a criminal complaint. Slattery and two others used another person to buy the horns, which they sold in New York, prosecutors say.
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice said Slattery is a member of the The Rathkeale Rovers, also known as Irish Travellers, which are described as “tight-knit extended family groups that live a nomadic lifestyle.” The group has an extended history in the Fort Worth area, including hundreds who’ve lived in the city and White Settlement.
“The group leverages the rising price for rhinoceros horns in the black market to be used for traditional medicines and carving,” federal officials said in 2013. “According to information made public by Europol, the Rathkeale Rovers have been involved in an epidemic of raids on museums in Europe in which rhinoceros horns have been stolen.”
In 2010, Slattery, Patrick Sheridan and Michael Slattery Jr. bought two black rhinoceros horns from an Austin taxidermist for $18,000 cash, using the straw buyer to sign an endangered species bill of sale, according to the complaint. Two months later, they met a buyer at a tea house in New York and sold four black rhino horns for $50,000, using a fictitious endangered species bill of sale, officials say.
Twenty armed gardai, the Irish state police force, arrested Slattery during an early morning raid at his home in Limerick last week, his attorney Mark Lynam said in court, according to the Irish Times.
“He was taken from his home and put on a plane,” Lynam said. “I’m very surprised it happened that way because Mr. Slattery is someone who is in a high-risk category in respect of Covid-19.”
Slattery appeared in federal court in Waco on Tuesday.
Slattery’s partners, Sheridan and Slattery Jr., each have been sentenced for their roles in the rhino horn trafficking conspiracy, federal prosecutors say.