Irish man sentenced to prison in rhino horn trafficking case

WACO, Texas -- An Irishman has been sentenced to one year in federal prison after pleading guilty in Texas to illegal trafficking in rhinoceros horns.

Patrick Sheridan was arrested in January 2015 in Holyhead, Wales, on an indictment returned in May 2014 by a federal grand jury in Waco. It charged that he and a co-defendant conspired to traffic in the horns of the critically endangered black rhinoceros by using a "straw buyer" to buy two horns from a Texas taxidermist. Then, they sold in New York those and two others also illegally purchased in Texas.

Co-defendant Michael Slattery Jr. pleaded guilty in Brooklyn, New York, to his role in the scheme and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.