Irish Citizen Gets Prison For Trafficking Rhino Cup From Miami

MIAMI, FL — A second Irish citizen pleaded guilty Tuesday to his role in trafficking a drink cup fashioned out of an endangered rhinoceros horn from Miami International Airport to the United Kingdom by way of Atlanta.

Richard Sheridan, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez to 14 months in a federal prison followed by two years of supervised release.

Michael Hegarty, 40, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

“For our critically endangered wildlife, every case that serves to deter their illegal poaching and trafficking in their artifacts is important to the global effort to preserve these iconic specimens for our children and the generations to come,” U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan said in Miami.

Federal prosecutors said Sheridan and Hegarty traveled from London to Miami where they were joined by a Miami resident to attend an auction in Rockingham, North Carolina back in 2012.

"At the auction, Sheridan actually functioned as the bidder on behalf of the three individuals, and made the winning bid for a rhinoceros horn libation cup described as 'Lot 463: Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Chilong Libation Cup,' for $57,500," federal prosecutors said.

On May 4, 2012, Hegarty, who was in Coconut Grove at the time, called Federal Express in North Carolina to arrange shipment of the cup from the auction house in Rockingham to Florida. Later that month, Sheridan smuggled the libation cup out of the United States in his luggage from Miami to London via Atlanta, authorities said.

"He failed to declare the export of the rhino horn libation cup as required by law ... and neither applied for nor obtained the permit required under the Endangered Species Act," according to prosecutors, who said Sheridan and two Irish nationals were arrested in London while attempting to sell the cup to a Hong Kong native.

Scientific analysis confirmed that the cup was fashioned from the horn of an Endangered Species Act-protected Great Indian Rhinoceros.

Hegarty was arrested through an INTERPOL Red Notice and extradited to the United States from Belgium. Sheridan was convicted on unrelated charges in England and extradited to Miami in August.

“Only through the continued, collective efforts of the international community will the goal of preserving species under threat of extinction be realized," Fajardo Orshan added.