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Six suspects have been arrested in connection with wildlife crimes in six separate cases from 18 April to 25 April, while 10 illegal wildlife products were confiscated.

On 12 April, Haita Paulus Tjambiru was arrested at Orupembe in connection with an old case dating back to October 2015 in which a rhino was illegally hunted. He was charged with contravening the Nature Conservation Ordinance. In another incident at Ondangwa on 13 April, Phillipus Alfeus was arrested for being in possession of two python skins.

Although wildlife crime is ultimately driven by demand in consumer countries, Namibians continue to make up over 90% of arrested wildlife crime suspects in country. This according to the environment ministry and police’s Annual Wildlife Crime Report for 2020. A massive 91% of the 304 suspects arrested for wildlife crimes of high value species in last year were Namibians. Suspects from neighbouring countries made up the rest of the arrests and included Angolans (5%), Zimbabweans (4%) and Batswana (0.4%).

Among the more than 300 people arrested for wildlife crimes involving high-value species last year, several were important, high-level suspects that included dealers and kingpins. According to the Combatting Wildlife Crime Annual Report 2020, a kingpin from a neighbouring country with "complex Namibian connections and links to end markets in Asia" was arrested in Namibia during a covert operation last year. A suspect with dual nationalities under different aliases was also arrested while attempting to traffic contraband from regional sources into Namibia.

The case of three Chinese men accused of trying to smuggle 14 rhino horns worth about N$2.3 million out of Namibia has been transferred to the Windhoek Regional Court in Katutura for plea and trial. Li Xiaoliang, Li Zhibing and Pu Xuexin were caught with the rhino horns, as well as a leopard skin valued about N$50 000, stashed in their luggage at the Hosea Kutako International Airport on March 23.

The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Uahekua Herunga, has warned Namibians who are collaborating with international poaching syndicates that they must stop with this illegal practice or face the consequences. Namibia is in the process of establishing an anti-poaching unit and Herunga stressed the urgency of getting this unit up and running as soon as possible. He said the country experienced a spill-over of poaching from South Africa, where large numbers of rhinos and elephants have been killed in the past two years.