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After a four-month operation, the owner of a traditional medicine store in Cape Town has been arrested after police confiscated various illegal fauna and flora. The store owner is expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court soon. The Western Cape police spokesperson, Captain Frederick van Wyk said in order to address the illegal and ongoing stripping of bark from protected tree species in Table Mountain National Park, Environmental Crime Investigation (ECI) Cape Town identified a shop in Cape Town which purchased bark and other items from illegal suppliers for muti…

Pretoria - At least four people have been arrested by the Hawks in North West while they were selling two pangolins at a mall. Spokesperson for the Hawks in North West, Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso, said the two pangolins were being sold for R200 000.

Cape Town - A 34-year-old man, who escaped from the Makhanda Correctional Facility in October 2022, appeared in court on new charges. "The suspect was found in possession of hunting implements, and was detained for contravening the National Environmental Management and Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004 Sec 57 (attempted hunting of a threatened or protected species without a permit).

Pretoria - A woman involved in rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park was on Friday jailed for 16 years by the Skukuza Regional Court.

Two suspects are expected to appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of illegal possession of abalone, reckless and negligent driving and assault on a police official.

A Lesotho national is expected to appear in the Ganyesa Magistrate’s Court in the North West on Monday for possession of endangered species. During the operation, a search was conducted in a house at Tlakgameng, leading to the discovery of two pangolins, two dead rock pythons and two dead monkeys.

Mpumalanga provincial head of the Hawks, Major General Nico Gerber has welcomed the arrest of the 14th accused person, 24-year-old Nkateko Maluleke who was wanted in a case of money laundering, where field rangers allegedly provided tactical information to rhino poachers in the Kruger National Park.

Pretoria - The Hawks in Mpumalanga have arrested Martin Prince Lekhuleni, 37, and his sister Eunice Lekhuleni, 24, who were circulated by the elite crime fighting unit earlier this week as wanted individuals. The siblings, who were wanted on charges of money laundering in connection to payment of Kruger National Park field rangers in exchange for tactical information, handed themselves in to police.

Pretoria - Two men, Junior Chauke aged 49 and Prince Ntsako Letswele, aged 33 were remanded in custody by the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court after they were arrested for alleged possession of rhino horn. Hawks' spokesperson in Mpumalanga Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi said the duo was arrested after police received information about a vehicle with the occupants in possession of firearms, reportedly driving towards Ermelo.

Pretoria - Six people have been remanded in custody after they appeared before the Zeerust Magistrate's Court for possession of a pangolin.

Pretoria - Convicted rhino poacher Silvester Sidney Zitha, 40, has been sentenced to an e

Cape Town - A 50-year-old Ghanaian national was sentenced in the Kroonstad Regional Court in the Free State after he pleaded guilty for being in possession of abalone.

Pretoria - Two men aged 37 and 52, one a police constable, charged with illegal dealing in pangolin and contravention of the National Environmental Management-Biodiversity (Nemba) Act, have appeared before the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court.

Pretoria - The Tembisa Regional Court has convicted and sentenced 49-year-old Ping Wu to five years direct imprisonment for money laundering. Spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi, said in April 2019, the Hawks serious organised crime investigation team based in Middelburg registered an undercover investigation into allegations of illegal trade in rhino horn. "The scope of the project was to address a syndicate in Gauteng who were illegally dealing in rhino horns," said Sekgotodi.

Cape Town - Police in the Northern Cape have arrested five suspects for the possession of protected plants worth over R600 000. According to the provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock, offcers attached to the Springbok Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit, Springbok K9 unit and the Springbok Highway Patrol arrested five male suspects along the N14 highway near Springbok on Thursday.

Cape Town - Nine suspects are expected to appear in the Goodwood Magistrate's Court soon after they were found to be in possession of protected plants. According to the Northern Cape's provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock, police members from the Springbok and Kuilsriver Stock Theft and Endangered Species Units (STESU) successfully conducted a joint buy and bust operation.

Pretoria - Two German nationals are appearing in court on Monday, after being arrested near Askham, Northern Cape for the illegal trade and possession of reptiles and controlled substances. The men were nabbed while illegally catching and trading in reptiles, including Armadillo girdled lizards which are a threatened and protected species, geckos and tortoises in the Northern Cape "with the intention to smuggle them" out of South Africa into the lucrative international exotic pet trade.

Pretoria -  An official from the North West department of economic development, environment, conservation and tourism (Dedect) has been arrested in connection with illegal rhino horn trade, the national department of forestry, fisheries and the environment has confirmed. The official and the owner of a security company were arrested yesterday in relation to alleged contraventions of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, the rhino norms and standards and contravention of permit conditions.

Pretoria - A 53-year-old warrant officer within the South African Police Service (SAPS) was on Friday appearing in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court, with a female accomplice, on charges of alleged involvement in illegal dealings of rhino horns.

Cape Town - Police in the Eastern Cape have arrested a 38-year-old suspect and confiscated abalone with an approximate street value of R3.7 million.

Cape Town - A 45-year-old man is expected to appear in the Goodwood magistrate's court on Wednesday after he was found in possession of abalone worth over R1.7 million in Cape Town’s northern suburb of Edgemead.

Namibia's over-burdened criminal justice system is struggling to keep up with rhino-poaching court cases, some of them delayed by up to six years. Is a special wildlife crime court the answer? 

Pretoria - Three men arrested by the police in Limpopo as they attempted to sell elephant tusks valued at R168 000 to undercover law enforcement officers were on Monday denied bail by the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court. Limpopo police provincial spokesperson Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said the trio were arrested on Friday at Savannah Mall and were allegedly in possession of elephant tusks.

There are worrying signs that Namibia's legendary wild game numbers may be plummeting.

There are worrying signs that Namibia’s legendary wild game numbers may be plummeting. Four years ago the Namibian Professional Hunters Association raised an alarm about the lack of huntable elephant bulls in the Caprivi region, where the number of communal conservancies had grown from one in 1997 to 15 today.

How did 13 rhino bulls from the Kruger National Park end up on a hunting farm owned by a reclusive Russian billionaire in Namibia? John Grobler and Khadija Sharife follow the trail

Xuecheng Hou, a wealthy Chinese businessman linked to wildlife contraband trafficking, has emerged as a major player in the illegal trade in rare African timber in sub-Saharan Africa. John Grobler investigates.

The Namibian authorities don’t seem to be in any hurry to shut down a rhino horn smuggling syndicate that has infiltrated security at Windhoek’s airport, writes John Grobler.

Depending on your views about legal trade in wildlife products, the past week was either a good week or a very good week for Namibian conservation, writes John Grobler.

After a two-year investigation, John Grobler exposes the totem-based networks facilitating transnational rhino horn smuggling and defeating the criminal justice system’s pursuit of suspects.

John Grobler visits Okahao, a sleepy settlement near Etosha National Park at the centre of the poaching plague threatening the world’s last viable population of critically endangered black rhinos.

The second recent court development followed the sensational arrest of a young, up-and-coming Windhoek businessman named “Mox” Namwandi. Who is he? John Grobler tracks his connections.

Court evidence reveals the typical methdology deployed by one of five organised crime syndicates believed to be active in Namibian wildlife trafficking, reports John Grobler.

A 10-month-long investigation by John Grobler uncovers the political and commercial agendas driving the world’s largest black rhino population towards extinction.

The Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) has launched an internal investigation after it was presented with a letter in mid-December outlining possible collusion between some staff members and poachers who have killed at least 18 critically endangered Kunene black rhinos since late 2012. The crisis at the SRT is however just part of a larger one in anti-poaching law enforcement and natural resource management in the so-called “Big Three” communal conservancies - Palmwag, Abenab and Sesfontein - in southern Kunene.

How did ‘Boxer’ die? Why are dead rhinos being found in the area his team patrolled? John Grobler digs up strange secrets surrounding the deaths of black rhinos in the Kunene region of Namibia.