WASHINGTON, May 27 -- A Chinese was sentenced to 70 months in prison by a U.S. district court on Tuesday for smuggling rhinoceros horns and ivory artifacts, Fox News reported.

The sentence is one of the longest in the United States for wildlife smuggling, according to the report.

The 30-year-old man, Zhifei Li, was arrested in January 2013. He was reported to have smuggled 30 rhino horns and numerous artifacts made from rhino horns and ivory, worth more than 4.5 million U.S. dollars, from the United States to China.

Qiang Wang, a New York-based antique dealer working with Li, was sentenced to 37 months in prison in December last year, according to the report.

During his trip to Africa earlier this month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China is strongly committed to protecting wildlife and will spare no effort in combating poaching and ivory smuggling.