27 months for man who sold rhino horns

A 67-year-old man was sentenced Friday to more than two years in federal prison for illegally selling the horns of an endangered black rhinoceros.

Prosecutors said Edward N. Levine, a California man with ties to the Colombian drug cartel, arranged the sale of horns for $55,000 at the South Point resort in March 2014.

Those horns could have been sold in an underground Asian market for at least $240,000, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ruled in handing down the 27-month sentence.

In a prepared speech on Friday, Levine called himself a vegetarian and told the judge that he would “never be involved with endangered species or any other criminal activity” for the rest of his life.

His attorney, Monti Levy, asked that he be given the same one-year, two-day sentence as his co-defendant, Lumsden Quan, who previously pleaded guilty.

Prosecutor Ryan Connors argued for a 33-month sentence, saying that Levine was a “career criminal, constantly putting his own interests above that of society.”

Levine had faced a maximum of five years’ imprisonment for violating the Lacey Act.

His criminal past dates to the late 1970s, when he was indicted on cocaine trafficking charges with Pablo Escobar. He was arrested 18 years after the indictment while using an alias and hiding $6 million in a safe deposit box, authorities said.

He spent a few years behind bars and served about eight more on parole.

Then, in April 2014, he was nabbed at the South Point as part of Oper

LEVINE

traffic Sgt. Paul Mccullough said. The boy died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

“In this case here, we’ve got a young kid. Perfect angel, as we expect all of our children to be, and just very sad circumstances,” Mccullough said.

The SUV driver, a woman in her 30s, stopped at a stop sign and looked left before turning right, hitting the boy. She wasn’t expecting to see the bicycle while turning, he said.

The driver had her child in the car at the time of the crash. She was cooperative with police, and officers didn’t think she was impaired or driving fast, Mccullough said.

“Obviously, under these circumstances, she’s very distraught and upset,” he said.

The boy wasn’t wearing a helmet, a Metro release later said. He was

thought to be riding alone.

It wasn’t clear who was at fault in the crash, but Mccullough said the crash was preventable, regardless, as it happened in a residential neighborhood with a child riding a bicycle near a school.

A small, black bike with pegs stood next to the SUV, which had its front passenger door swung open. Pink clothes were piled on the ground just behind the front driver’s side tire left by a person who tried to help the boy, Mccullough said.

Several children in the neighborhood saw the crash or the aftermath, he said.

“Our prayers to the families for those involved and for the folks that had to witness this,” Mccullough said.

The Clark County coroner’s office will release the boy’s identity after his family is notified.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.