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Three men, one Angolan and two Namibians, were arrested on Friday, at Charles Bar in Oshikango, Helao Nafidi, after they were allegedly found in possession of three bags of the protected Welwitschia mirabilis plant species. According to the crime report, the arrests followed an intelligence-led operation that uncovered the suspects offering the plants for illegal sale without a valid permit. The suspects, aged 35, 36, and 40, were taken into custody, and the value of the confiscated Welwitschia mirabilis is yet to be determined.

The Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa has a thriving rhino population, but their exact numbers and the details of the security operation that keeps them safe from poaching are closely guarded secrets. They are the protocols that reserves with rhinos follow to ensure they're not the next target for poachers who still kill on average one rhino every day in South Africa for their horns despite decades of work to save the endangered species.

Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal.

In 2020, a bank in Singapore found that one of its customers had paid $130,000 to a South African supplier for 11 cheetahs. Though the animals were transported directly from the source country to the destination country and never transited through Singapore, the money passed through the customer’s bank account here. The bank, which was not named by the authorities, filed a suspicious transaction report (STR) and terminated the customer relationship.