A Tanzanian court on Tuesday jailed a Chinese woman dubbed the "Ivory Queen" for 15 years for her role in trafficking tusks from more than 400 elephants.
Yang Fenglan, 69, was convicted in Dar es Salaam of trafficking 860 tusks between 2000 and 2014, a haul representing the slaughter of dozens of herds of elephants. But activists said Yang's network killed thousands of elephants.
Two Tanzanian men were also found guilty for their role in the illegal commerce. Salivius Matembo and Manase Philemon were also jailed for 15 years, after they were convicted of leading an organised criminal gang.
"The prosecution proved the case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt," Judge Huruma Shaidi told the court.
Shaidi also ordered the trio to either pay twice the market value of the elephant tusks or face another two years in prison.
Wildlife campaigners have called it one of the most important cases for several years.
Yang, who has lived in the East African nation since the 1970s, was convicted of organising a smuggling ring between Tanzania and Asia. A Swahili-speaker, she also owns a popular Chinese restaurant in Dar es Salaam.
When she was arrested in 2015 she was vice-president of the China-Africa Business Council of Tanzania.
Poaching has seen the population of African elephants fall by 110,000 over the past decade to just 415,000 animals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The slaughter is being fuelled especially by demand in Asia, where ivory is used for jewellery and ornaments.
In court documents, prosecutors said Yang "intentionally did organise, manage and finance a criminal racket by collecting, transporting or exporting and selling government trophies" weighing a total of 1.889 tonnes.
Conservationists welcomed Yang's conviction, saying it was proof of the government's seriousness in the fight against wildlife poaching but criticised the sentence.
"[It] is not punishment enough for the atrocities she committed, by being responsible for the poaching of thousands of elephants in Tanzania," Amani Ngusaru, WWF country director, told Reuters. "She ran a network that killed thousands of elephants."
In March 2016, Tanzania sentenced two Chinese men to 35 years each in jail for ivory smuggling, while in December 2015 another court sentenced four Chinese men to 20 years in jail each after they were convicted of smuggling rhino horns.
Yang was escorted under tight security to the Ukonga prison in Dar es Salaam where she is expected to serve her jail time.
