PRETORIA – The Mpumalanga anti-poaching Tracking Team, together with the South Africa Police Service’s National Intervention unit, confirmed to Lowvelder that three suspected rhino poachers have been arrested Thursday, June 11.
The arrests took place in the early morning hours in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga.
A 30-year-old South African male and a 32-year-old Mozambican male were arrested at their place of residence.
A .416 calibre hunting rifle and a .458 silencer with no serial number were discovered.
They have been charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm and will appear in the Acornhoek Magistrate’s Court today, Friday June 12.
Shortly after these suspects were arrested, a 38-year-old South African male was also arrested in a separate suspected rhino poaching case.
He was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition after a .38 Special Revolver with no serial number, two .38 rounds, a .38 cartridge and an axe were found at his place of residence.
He will also appear in the same court today.
SAPS efforts to deal with this scourge is proactively steadily gaining momentum. However, while these positive results can be attributed to close and untiring cooperation by local communities, a lot more still needs to be done to save animals, particularly the rhino.
Brig Vishnu Naido says, “While we are tackling the foot soldiers of this evil, we will continue to focus our efforts on the leaders of this criminal underworld because these are the people that are creating a market for this type of products. To this end, environmental crimes, especially rhino poaching, is listed as one of the priorities of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Committee.”
“With the collaboration and commitment of the police chiefs in this region, we are confident that the space for this criminality to perpetuate is drastically limited,” Naidoo concluded.
