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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 global demand for small wildlife, including ants, spiders and scorpions, is increasing. Just this week, a group of Belgians and Vietnamese were sentenced for smuggling ants out of Kenya. Dr Caswell Munyai, a myrmecologist from UKZN has more on this.

Johannesburg - SANParks is welcoming hefty sentences handed to rhino poachers by the Skukuza Regional Court. Four men, including a former field ranger, were arrested in Skukuza in 2019 following a tip-off. Poaching equipment and a set of rhino horns were seized.

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.