BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court has sentenced three people to prison over the smuggling of nearly two dozen rhinoceros horns worth $1.5 million from Ethiopia.
The bags carrying the 21 horns were discovered in March last year in a random customs search at Bangkok's main airport. Officials found the horns, weighing almost 50 kilograms (110 pounds), inside luggage originating from Addis Ababa.
On Tuesday, a court in central Thailand handed four-year prison sentences to two Thai women who attempted to claim the luggage before they fled as officers searched their bags, and a public prosecutor who tried to convince airport security to not check the bags.
The three were convicted of smuggling restricted items into the country and evading customs taxes.
