Head of smuggling ring gets unprecedented 40-year term in move heralded by animal rights activists.

Animal rights campaigners are celebrating a record prison term given to a rhino poacher in South Africa.

Chumlong Lemtongthai, a Thai man who was the head of an international ring that illegally traded rhino horns, has been sentenced to 40 years to jail.

Lemtonghtai pleaded guilty to 59 charges. In one case, he allegedly took advantage of a law allowing foreigners to hunt rhinos in South Africa by paying prostitutes to pose as hunters.

He then sent the horns to Asia, where they were sold in traditional medicine markets.

Al Jazeera’s Mereana Hond reports.