Story highlights The giant animals' ages range from 6 to 25 
 
 They'll be the newest residents at zoos in Texas, Kansas and Nebraska 
 
 (CNN) Seventeen elephants flown out of Swaziland on a chartered plane are now in their new home country -- the United States. 
 
 The elephants, from a game reserve run by nonprofit Big Game Parks , landed in Fort Worth, Texas, over the weekend aboard the cargo plane. 
 
 Before their departure from Swaziland, the giant animals were sedated and loaded onto crates for the long flight. 
 
 On arrival, five were transferred to the Dallas Zoo under police escort. 
 
 The remaining 12 are the newest residents of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. 
 
 THIS is how you securely move 5 elephants to a safe new home. Tx, @fortworthpd & Alliance Airport! pic.twitter.com/5SnG7RyCva — Dallas Zoo (@DallasZoo) March 11, 2016 
 
 Read More ||||| Philadelphia art dealer 'smuggled tonne of ivory' 
 
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 An art dealer has been arrested and accused of smuggling a tonne of African ivory into the US for sale at his Philadelphia store. 
 
 Victor Gordon, 68, paid a conspirator to fly to Africa, purchase raw ivory and have it carved to his specifications, prosecutors said. 
 
 The conspirator dyed the carvings in order to make them appear old before smuggling them into the US, they said. 
 
 Traffic in ivory is tightly restricted under US and international law. 
 
 "It's safe to say dozens of elephants sit before you," Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, told reporters in Philadelphia. 
 
 There, officials displayed for reporters intricately carved whole tusks and smaller sculptures and figurines that agents had seized from Mr Gordon's shop and from his customers. 
 
 Elephants are protected under the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Ivory more than 100 years old can be sold can be legally imported into the US. 
 
 "The amount of the elephant ivory allegedly plundered in this case is staggering and highlights the seriousness of the charged crimes," United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said. 
 
 "We all have a responsibility to protect endangered species, both for their sake and for the sake of our own future generations." 
 
 Ms Lynch's office described the seizure of the ivory in the case as one of the largest in US history. 
 
 According to an indictment filed in federal court in New York, Mr Gordon paid an unidentified co-conspirator $32,000 (£19,500) to undertake several trips to purchase "raw" ivory in central and west Africa between May 2006 and April 2009. 
 
 The co-conspirator had the ivory carved and stained to disguise its newness, then smuggled it into the US through JFK International Airport in New York. 
 
 It was then delivered to Mr Gordon's retail store in Philadelphia, according to the indictment. 
 
 In April 2009, federal fish and wildlife officers seized hundreds of ivory tusks and carvings from Mr Gordon's shop in Philadelphia. 
 
 As the investigation progressed over the next year-and-a-half, agents seized more pieces from his customers in the states of New York, Kansas, California and Missouri. 
 
 Mr Gordon was arrested on Tuesday and charged with 10 counts of violating US anti-ivory smuggling laws, including statutes aimed at protecting endangered species and enforcing the CITES. 
 
 If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
– A cargo plane packed with 17 African elephants touched down in Texas over the weekend, CNN reports, with the pachyderms headed to zoos in Dallas, Kansas, and Nebraska. The transfer to the US was a "rescue mission," Dallas Zoo President Gregg Hudson says, because the elephants were slated to be killed to make room for rhinos at the Big Game Parks reserve in Swaziland, which is suffering a "state-of-emergency drought." Activists, however, aren't happy. Connecticut-based Friends of Animals, which had filed for a preliminary injunction, was planning to make legal arguments "to prevent a lifetime of captivity" for the elephants during a Thursday hearing. Scoffs Hudson, "There are those who would rather see elephants die than live in accredited zoos. We strongly disagree." In a statement, Friends of Animals accuses the "devious" zoos of "secretly" removing the elephants ahead of the hearing, writing, "the underhandedness of this move cannot be overstated." The group contends that confining elephants in zoos can cause depression and other psychological problems. In a statement of its own, the Dallas Zoo calls claims that the elephants were taken from Swaziland under cover of darkness "outlandish," adding that the transfer had been planned for months and "there was no subterfuge." The US Fish and Wildlife Service approved the transfer in January. Also, the zoo notes, the preliminary injunction did not prohibit the relocation from going forward. The elephants, which were sedated and put into crates for the flight, range in age from 6 years old to 25. In exchange for the animals, the zoos will donate money toward the game reserve's rhino conservation program.