GavelAn eastern Iowa man was sentenced this week to two years in federal prison for bringing the horns of a black rhinoceros into Iowa from the West Coast.

Thirty-nine-year-old James Hess, of Maquoketa, received his prison term after a May 13th guilty plea to one count of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the trafficking of endangered wildlife.

In his plea agreement, Hess, a taxidermist, admitted to contacting an individual in Oregon trying to sell a pair of black rhino horns. Hess told the Oregon individual he was going to resell the horns in Oregon but actually gave them to Wade Steffen, a Texas resident, who shipped the horns to California.

Steffen gave Hess a portion of the profit he was expected to make from selling the horns in California.

(Reporting by Cody Barnes, WMAQ, Maquoketa)