The Supreme Court of Congo sentenced the ringleader of a gang of poachers in Africa to five years in prison, the maximum under the law for slaughtering dozens of elephants for their ivory tusks.

Ghislain “Pepito” Ngondjo had run amok in Congo’s Cuvette-Ouest region for a decade and had allegedly cultivated connections on high to avoid arrest and prosecution.  But eventually his luck ran out when a rival poacher was caught and rolled over on Pepito.  One codefendant also got 5 years; a third member of the gang will do 2 years.

Nailing Ngondjo is a victory for the managers of Congo's Odzala-Kokoua National Park and their law enforcement team who have been working in extremely difficult circumstances to combat poaching in and around Odzala.

Elephant poaching has hit record levels in recent years with criminals taking advantage of war and strife throughout Central Africa to attack elephant populations. Forest elephants, which are largely found in the Congo Basin, have been decimated:  A recent study found that the population had been cut down by 60 percent in the last decade due to poaching.

An estimated 35,000 elephants were killed in 2012 for their tusks, which are smuggled to market in Asia.