A 50-year-old Irish man, who pleaded guilty in a US court to trafficking rhinoceros horns, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and two years' supervised release.
Richard Sheridan is an Irish national with an address at Cottenham, Cambridge in the UK.
He was extradited from the UK to the US in August and pleaded guilty in a Miami court after being charged in connection with the trafficking of a libation cup made from the horn of a protected rhinoceros.
Sheridan and another Irish man, Michael Hegarty, were charged with conspiracy to traffic the libation cup. Sheridan was also charged with smuggling the cup out of the US.
According to court documents, in 2012, Sheridan and Hegarty purchased a rhinoceros horn libation cup from an auction house in Rockingham, North Carolina, and then smuggled it out of the US.
In November 2017, Hegarty was sentenced in a Miami court to 18 months in prison and three years' supervised release after pleading guilty to the charges.
Speaking following today's sentencing of Sheridan, US Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said he had conspired to profit from the demise of one of the world's most endangered species.
"We will continue to work with our international partners to fight the trade in protected and endangered species, and organised criminal enterprises associated with it," he said.
