Yang Feng Glan was charged alongside two Tazanian men in Dar es Salaam after an investigation which lasted a year and spread across continents.

Glan is accused of smuggling 760 tusks out of the country to the Far East between January 2000 and May 2014 - an amount thought to be worth almost £2million.

If convicted, she faces between 20 and 30 years behind bars for her part in a trade which has helped Tanzania's elephant population drop from 109,051 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014.

According to the Elephant Action League, she has already admitted to string of offences.

The 66-year-old businesswoman is understood to have lived in Tanzania since 1975, when she worked as a translator on the Chinese-built railway.

'It's the news that we all have been waiting for, for years,' said Andrea Crosta, co-founder of the Elephant Action League and WildLeaks.

'Finally, a high profile Chinese trafficker is in jail. Hopefully she can lead us to other major traffickers and corrupt government officials. We must put an end to the time of the untouchables if we want to save the elephant.'

'Everyone she has been dealing with will now become a target for law enforcement,' concludes Crosta.

-Daily mail