South African leopard smuggler sentenced in Denver

Rocky Mountain News

Published August 9, 2007 at midnight

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A 58-year-old big-game outfitter from South Africa has been sentenced by a Denver federal judge to 18 months in prison for smuggling leopard hides and skulls from Zimbabwe to the United States, federal officials said.

Jan Greonewald Swart, 58, also will undergo three years of supervised release on one felony charge of importing merchandise contrary to law, according to a news release from the Denver U.S. Attorney's Office.

Under a plea agreement, Swart acknowledged operating a commercial big game outfitting business called Trophy Hunting Safaris in Limpopo Province in South Africa. Swart didn't have a hunting permit for that area and told his American hunting clients they should say the leopards were killed in Zimbabwe, the news release said.

SWART arranged the smuggling of five leopard hides and three skulls from those hunts and bought fraudulent export permits from Zimbabwe, the U.S. attorney's office said. He had the parts shipped to a Denver taxidermist in November 2005, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seized them.

Swart and another unidentified South African outfitter were arrested at a Pennsylvania sports show earlier this year.

Leopards in southern Africa are considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act. They can be hunted in South Africa under a strict quota and permit system. Permits are required to import their parts into the United States.

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