Pepito locked for 5 years

After years of running ivory trade, the Court in Ewo finally sentenced Pepito to 5 years in prison – a maximum prison sentence.

His sense of impunity likely came to an end last night when he was promptly delivered to the Brazzaville Prison, hundreds of kilometers from where he comfortably operated from.

Even after being arrested by the authorities of Odzala-Kokoua National Park, this flagrant peddler of influence began tossing out death threats to employees of African Parks who manage the park. He thought his connections could help him evade justice. He was sorely mistaken.

Five years will hopefully give Pepito, and other ivory traffickers, some time to decide to cease trafficking ivory and causing the extinction of Africa’s elephants.

Meanwhile, the battle may be won, but the war is still ongoing – we’ve got one of our biggest cases ever coming up in court in Brazzaville in less than two weeks. The traffickers were busy peddling influence since the day of the bust, but we are even more motivated now to succeed in making an impact on the feeling of impunity these traffickers walk around with. Indeed, breaking the impunity may be the most important immediate action in saving the elephants.

Click here for an article in Jeune Afrique regarding the 1 and 2 July hearings of the Pepito case.