Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

Information & discussion on the Rhino Poaching Pandemic
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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

Post by Lisbeth »

Enjoy your time in jail, gentlemen :twisted: :evil:


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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Now why can't SA work like this?? O/


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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Two men in court after caught with 167 rhino horns

2019-04-15 22:53

Two South African men caught at the weekend with 167 rhino horns, one of the biggest hauls recorded and believed to be destined for Asia, appeared in court on Monday, police said.

Clive John Melville, 57, and Petrus Stephanus Steyn, 61, both from the southern city of Port Elizabeth, face charges of trafficking rhino horns.

The two will remain in custody until April 26 when they will apply for bail, said brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, Hawks spokesperson.

They were arrested on Saturday in the Hartbeespoort dam area, north of Pretoria, following a tip-off that there was a car transporting rhino horns.

Police said the rhino horns worth a "substantial amount of money" were destined for the Southeast Asian markets.

Demand for rhino horn is primarily fuelled by consumers in China and Vietnam where it is advertised by some traditional medicine practitioners as a wonder ingredient.

In reality, rhino horn is comprised of little more than keratin, the same protein that makes human hair and fingernails.

Nonetheless, horn can fetch up to $60,000/kg in Asia, stoking lucrative transnational crime networks that have decimated rhino populations in recent decades.

South Africa, which is home to about 80% of the world rhino population, has been hit hardest.

In 2018, 769 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone. More than 7 100 animals have been killed over the past decade.

The country is also home to the world's largest privately-run rhino farms.

In 2017, a leading private rhino breeder John Hume organised an online rhino auction after South Africa's top court lifted an eight-year moratorium on the domestic trade of rhino horns.

Breeders harvest the horns by tranquilising the animals and cutting them off - a technique they say is humane and wards off poachers.

Photographs circulated in the local media after the weekend seizure show horns with markings indicating weight and others that appear to be registration numbers.

"These suggest that the horns came from a stockpile of some kind, possibly a private stockpile," Julian Rademeyer, a project leader at Traffic, the international wildlife trade network, told AFP.

The way the horns have been cut "looks as though (they were) professionally cut with an electric saw - again this could point to the possibility that some of the horns came from rhinos that had been dehorned and not necessarily from poached animals," added Rademeyer.


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

Post by Alf »

I'm sure these rhino breeders have plenty cut off rhino horns and they get lured into this "get rich quickly" marked. Not that i think these guys have money problems......

But it's obviously quick money and once they sell a few horns the greed takes over 0*\


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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I read somewhere that one of these gents is John Hume’s nephew. :evil:


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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:evil: :evil:


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

Post by Lisbeth »

More info re the above arrests:

2019-04-16 20:32
Sesona Ngqakamba


The case of two men arrested for allegedly smuggling 180 rhino horn, weighing a total of 150kg, was postponed for a bail application on Tuesday.

The two were allegedly smuggling the rhino horn to the far east.

Petrus Stephanus Steyn, 61 and Clive John Melville, 57, appeared in the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Monday for charges of illegal trade in rhino horn.

The Department of Environmental Affairs has welcomed the arrests, saying without the co-operation and collaboration of the general public, South Africa would not be able to win the battle against rhino poaching and the smuggling of rhino horn.

The men were arrested near Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West province during an operation, involving members of the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Endangered Species Unit, Special Task Force, Tracker SA and Vision Tactical.

The arrest took place after a tip-off that a vehicle from a coastal province was carrying a considerable amount of horn.

According to Environmental Affairs spokesperson Albi Modise, the rhino horn were allegedly destined for the South East Asian market.

"Although the domestic trade in rhino horn is legal when the necessary permits in terms of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act have been obtained, the international commercial trade of rhinoceros horn is prohibited in terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora," Modise said.

Lucrative

Demand for rhino horn is primarily fuelled by consumers in China and Vietnam where it is advertised by some traditional medicine practitioners as a wonder ingredient, AP reported on Sunday.

In reality, rhino horn is a nostrum, comprised of little more than keratin - the same protein that makes human hair and fingernails.

Nonetheless, horn can fetch up to $60 000/kg in Asia, boosting lucrative transnational crime networks that have destroyed rhino populations in recent decades.

South Africa, which is home to about 80% of the world's rhino population, has been hit most severely. In 2018, 769 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone. More than 7 100 animals have been killed over the past ten years.


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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Woman with 2 rhino horns in her car arrested in Bedfordview

2019-04-18 08:49
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A woman will appear in the Germiston Regional Court on Thursday after she was caught with two rhino horns inside her vehicle in Bedfordview, eastern Johannesburg, Times Live reported.

The woman, 55, will reportedly be charged with the illegal possession of rhino horns.

"The suspect was arrested by the Hawks' serious organised crime endangered species unit, with the support of the Ekurhuleni metropolitan police and SANParks," police spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu told Times Live.

"The joint, intelligence-driven operation landed the suspect in detention after she was found with two rhino horns in her vehicle, around Bedfordview. Follow-up investigations are ongoing."

On Tuesday, the case of two men arrested for allegedly smuggling 180 rhino horns, weighing a total of 150kg, was postponed for a bail application, News24 reported.

Co-operation

The two were allegedly smuggling the rhino horn to the Far East.

Petrus Stephanus Steyn, 61, and Clive John Melville, 57, appeared in the Brits Magistrate's Court on Monday for charges of illegal trade in rhino horn.

The Department of Environmental Affairs has welcomed their arrests, saying without the co-operation and collaboration of the general public, South Africa would not be able to win the battle against rhino poaching and the smuggling of rhino horn.

In March, three rhino poachers were finally behind bars awaiting their sentencing after a Durban magistrate convicted them at the end of a 10-year-long trial, News24 reported.

Magistrate Logan Naidoo in the Durban Magistrate's Court found Muntugokwakhe Khoza, 50, Ayanda Buthelezi, 40, and SANDF officer Mduduzi Xulu, 51, guilty of rhino poaching.

The men were caught "red-handed" with blood dripping from their clothing and in possession of two freshly hacked off white rhino horns in their bakkie just outside Imfolozi Game Reserve on August 26, 2009.


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

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Turns out the 180 horns found in the first article were legal and just being transported! Will wait for article to come out. \O


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Re: Rhino Poaching: Arrests, Prosecutions & Sentencing

Post by Lisbeth »

Fake news 0*\


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