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Seven suspects aged between 17 and 47 were arrested for poaching and being in possession of wildlife and weapons. According to a provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, some wildlife species, mostly more than 20 antelope, two hunting rifles, some bush knives, some ammunition and a light delivery vehicle were all confiscated from the Mauchsburg Plantation in Pilgrim’s Rest this morning, Monday December 4, at about 03:00.

Succulent poaching is not a new problem in South Africa; collectors have been stealing our unique plants for decades.

The FF Plus called for intensified efforts to curb poaching of wild animals in the Manyeleti Game Reserve, while the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency said the situation had been stabilised after a hectic December of dog poaching and snaring.

An alleged rhino poacher, who has been on the run from authorities since 2019, was rearrested in KaBokweni.

A ranger's job is never done. Even in the midst of the floods the Kruger National Park is currently experiencing, some rangers detained one of their own hiding two other individuals with poaching equipment in their possession.

Shiuhau Chen, a Chinese national, was found guilty on three counts of illegally dealing in rhino horns and contravening the Immigration Act in the Kempton Park Regional Court on Friday January 20.

The Kruger National Park (KNP) expects a decline in rhino poaching incidents due to heavy sentences imposed on five poachers in November. The acting managing executive of the KNP, Dr Danny Govender, commended the Skukuza Regional Court for imposing lengthy jail terms in recent cases and said it shows they are making good progress in fighting rhino poaching.

On-duty field rangers working at the Tshokwane Section of the park spotted two sets of footprints at Sundwini and followed up the trail using tracking dogs. Mohlala said the two men were arrested and found in possession of a high-calibre hunting rifle with a silencer, four rounds of live ammunition, an axe, backpacks and food. "Through an investigation it was discovered that the two are from Mozambique and did not
have valid documentation to be in South Africa." He said they pleaded guilty during their first day in court, and hence were sentenced…

Increased spot checks of vehicles inside the park will check for park offences such as possession of contraband and verification of identities and booking receipts of occupants inside the vehicles. Technologies being implemented include vehicle number plate recognition, remote vehicle monitoring, radar surveillance and night flying with specialised infrared cameras.

SANParks says the proliferation of wire snares in the Lowveld is linked to criminal networks.

A man has been arrested in Hazyview for being in possession of a Pangolin, following a tip-off from a local community member. On Tuesday September 27, a private game reserve near Hazyview received the tip-off that a white Bantam bakkie was driving around town looking for a buyer for the Pangolin which is the world's most trafficked animal species.

A total of 82 rhinos have been poached in the Kruger National Park between January and June this year.

Three men who had allegedly poached the four rhinos and were able to dehorn three of them, appeared in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court on Monday July 4.

Three alleged poachers were arrested in the Kruger National Park after allegedly killing four rhinos on Friday July 1.

It is suspected that setting snares in the Lowveld has increased by 20% from last season while the Kruger National Park has had an increase of 50%.

A 47-year-old man was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment on Friday for illegal poaching. Sam Khoza (47) was apprehended in the Kruger National Park on November 11, 2020, when a shoot-out between field rangers in the park, Khoza and his two accomplices ensued. A statement by a provincial police spokesperson, Brig Selvy Mohlala, said two of the suspects evaded arrest, but Khoza, who sustained some injuries during the shooting, was captured. He was found in possession of a rifle, some ammunition as well as a silencer.

The reopening of the Skukuza Regional Court is producing positive results, with a 100% conviction rate for rhino poachers over the past two years. The court had been closed by the Mpumalanga Regional Court president Naomi Engelbrecht in August 2019, who wanted it to be moved to Mhala Court about 100 kilometres from Skukuza. However, this decision was overruled and the court was reopened again in April 2021.

Sibusiso Mahlaule (29), George Manyise (30) and Rodrigues Ngobeni (34) did not escape the might of the law and were sentenced by the Skukuza Regional Court for poaching on Friday March 11. The three were caught by field rangers in Kruger National Park on April 18, 2021. It was reported that the rangers, working at Pretoriuskop, had discovered some tracks that brought the presence of intruders to their attention.

There are concerns that cases of wildlife poaching in Botswana could increase, following the government’s decision to allow game farming on land that has no security or fencing to control the movement of wild animals.

Mpumalanga's AB Steyn and Limpopo's Dawie Groenewald appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on February 23 and 24. The pair's previous appearance was on December 10 last year when the case was postponed for the fourth time. Some issues were raised by each of their legal representatives yesterday including that the state was dragging its feet in the case, that the state should be held responsible for the teams' travel costs because of the delays, and that documents were not presented in the way they were supposed to be.

Police this year arrested about 1 306 people for illegally dealing in precious minerals and elephant tusks, recovering millions of dollars' worth of contraband, a senior officer said on Saturday.

In Côte d'Ivoire, an alleged trafficker operating in the illegal ivory trade was arrested on Friday, November 19, 2021 in the town of Treichville. The alleged trafficker, in possession of two ivory tusks was arrested when he was about to sell the goods in the cables of a jewelry store belonging to him.

Kenya remains a leading spot for laundering proceeds of illegal wildlife trafficking, logging, and fishing in Africa, a report on illicit financial flow by Sentry shows. Dubbed 'Kenya Illicit Finance Risk and Assessment', the report says the country acts as a transshipment site for East Africa. According to the report, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, DRC, Zambia and South Sudan traffic their wildlife products via Kenya heading to Asian countries including China and Hong Kong via Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore.

Monrovia, Liberia - Two men have been arrested for killing two protected elephants in northern Liberia, the head of a national park said on Monday.

The Nation in August reported the arrest of three Guineans and a Nigerian, and the recovery of N22 billion worth of pangolin scales, claws and elephant tusks from the suspects. Addressing reporters at the Customs Training School, Ikeja, where the seized items were displayed, National Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Deputy Controller Joseph Attah, said experts from the Federal Ministry of Environment, Department of Forestry, would conduct a DNA test on the pangolin scales to know the country where the animals were killed.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that its officers have again, for the second time in two months, intercepted a huge catche of Pangolin scale worth N1.7billion in Lagos. This is even as the NCS revealed that findings have indicated that Nigeria is a conduit pipe being used by a yet to be identified international cartel in this illegal trade. Recall that the NCS in August had intercepted a huge catche of Pangolin scales worth N22billion in Lagos.

Stakeholders of the Tsavo Landscape Multi-Agency Wildlife Security Hub in Taita Taveta have agreed to establish wildlife security hubs to tackle human-wildlife conflicts, illegal trafficking and poaching. The two state of the art centres will be located at Kenya Wildlife Services office in Voi and at the Kasigau wildlife corridor. Wildlife insecurity in Kenya is characterised by poaching, illicit trade, commercial poaching for bush meat and destruction of habitats.

The kingpin of one of Southern Africa's most prolific wildlife trafficking syndicates, Lin Yun Hua, was today sentenced to 14 years in prison in Malawi. Lin received 14 years for dealing in rhino horn, alongside 14 years for possession of rhino horn and six years for money laundering.

Since 2011, about 9 885 rhinos had been killed across Africa. Shaw said in a statement that while poaching in South Africa peaked in 2014 at 1 215 incidents, 394 rhinos were killed by poachers in 2020.

Zimbabwe Republic Police in Hwange arrested Bokisi Augustine (33) at St Mary's Village for illegally possessing an elephant tusk weighing 11.79 kgs and valued at US$2000.

The court case against the alleged poaching kingpin, Joseph "Big Joe" Nyalungu, has been postponed until February 14, 2022, when his trial will expectedly begin in the Skukuza Regional Court. According to Monica Nyuswa, the spokesperson or the National Prosecuting Authority, the trial was postponed because the court’s recording equipment was out of order. Nyalungu would have appeared with his South African co-accused on Tuesday September 21, while the accused from Mozambique were expected to appear on Thursday September 23.

Alain Moukombou, Romuald Kassa, Gervais Bamdjogo and Ralph Ngayïkoukoudié, all Gabonese nationals, were arrested on 14 September to Mulundu in Ogooué-Lolo, in possession of six ivory tusks. Placed in custody to view the premises of the Judicial Police (PJ) Koula-moutou, suspected traffickers face up to 10 years in prison.

AB Steyn and Dawie Groenewald appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court again on September 17 after they had been arrested in Mbombela on July 20. The pair was arrested for the alleged possession of 19 rhino horns on July 20, and after appearing in court on July 23 for the first time, they were released on bail of R50 000 each. Following their appearance today (September 17) the case was again postponed to December 10 for further investigation.

The commune of Mouila, capital of the province of Ngounié, has once again been the scene of an arrest of suspected ivory tusk traffickers. The facts took place on Wednesday, September 8, 2021 around 1 p.m. in a place where the concerned had made an appointment.

SANParks and security partners in the Greater Kruger Region are jointly implementing a range of interventions as part of an integrated wildlife management approach to counter the effects of wildlife crime, in particular rhino poaching.

The men were arrested on Wednesday afternoon for the illegal possession of 19 rhino horns.

The two men who were arrested for the illegal possession and selling of rhino horns on Wednesday, appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on Thursday afternoon. They are Schalk Abraham Steyn (48), better known to Lowvelders as AB, and Limpopo game farmer, Dawid Groenewald (52).

Gunshots ensued when a private walking safari concession came across suspected poachers in the Kruger National Park. SANParks announced today that a suspected poacher was fatally wounded in a contact situation with guides of a private walking safari concession in the Kruger National Park (KNP). The incident took place in the early hours of Friday July 2. The guides were on a walk with one guest when they came across a group of three suspected poachers.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Chinese national was apprehended at N’djili airport in Kinshasa in possession of ivory. As he was preparing to leave Congolese territory on a flight, a Chinese national named Huang was arrested after the discovery of a large quantity of ivory concealed in a milk box.

The Angolan police arrested seven poachers, including an inspector, in the Bicuar National Park, in Huíla province, who were mainly hunting elephants for the sale of ivory.

Five Mozambican citizens were detained by the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in Tete city and Chitima, a village in Cahora-Bassa district, on Monday, having being found in possession of 11 elephant tusks, lions’ teeth, a leopard skin and a pangolin skeleton.

Two suspects have been arrested at the Meru National Park for being in possession of five elephant tusks weighing 28 kilos with a street value of Sh2.8 million.

Kenya Wildlife Service has arrested a suspected poacher in possession of an elephant tusk at Elerai area in Tsavo West National Park. The tusk is suspected to be one of the two extracted from an elephant which was killed at Losoito in Tsavo West National Park, close to a month ago.

This week, an elephant trampled a suspected poacher to death in the Kruger Park after he ran in to a breeding herd trying to escape rangers. Another three suspected poachers have been arrested in the Kruger National Park (KNP), this time in the Crocodile Bridge section at the south end of the almost 20,000km² reserve.

A Kwale County government officer has been arrested by police officers after being found in illegal possession of 12 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 35 Kg in Matuga sub-county. The 53-year-old county employee, Josphat Mtoi Kuri, works as a clerical officer in Kinango Sub County was arrested inside a local guest house by a team of security officers drawn from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Criminal Investigation Department Officers who have been trailing him for some days.

During their investigation of the Bruwer case, the Hawks found that Elliot Sindane (69), Elvis Mlimi (50) and Mabuthi Khoza (35) were implicated on charges of illegal hunting, illegal possession of firearms and illegal rhino horn dealings over a decade ago.

Five people including three policemen have ended up in hot soup over possession of wildlife trophies including elephant ivory. According to Bashir Hangi, the Public Relations Manager at Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the suspects were arrested in two different incidences in Kampala and Kapelabyong in Teso sub region.

Although the fight is far from over, rhino poaching is in decline. Tough enforcement is part of the solution, but the power of grassroots conservation mustn't be overlooked The sound of Judge Siboleka's gavel reverberated through the Windhoek High Court on April 19, 2019. Four heads bowed in acceptance of egregious crimes. Sternly, Siboleka extended the sentences of Wang Hui, Pu Xuexin, Li Zhihing and Li Xiaoliang from 11 years to 15. Their charge: the illegal export of 14 rhino horns from Namibia in March 2014.

One suspected Zambian ivory poacher was arrested and four others escaped when they were ambushed by police in Namibia while trying to cross into wildlife-rich northern Botswana. The poachers were accosted by a Namibian border patrol unit on the Namibian side of the Linyanti River as they tried to cross into the Okavango Delta on Thursday night.

Joseph "Big Joe" Nyalungu, an alleged poaching kingpin, has in the past 10 years racked up numerous charges against him, none for which he has been found guilty or received jail time. His latest court appearance, along with his co-accused, was in the Nelspruit Regional Court. The charges over the years include murder, kidnapping, theft of seven white rhino horns from the Kruger National Park (KNP), using a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, fraud, obstruction of justice, possession of unlicensed firearms and being in possession of stolen property.