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Namibian Wildlife Crimes article archive
This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:
- provide easy public access to published information and statistics
- enable easy stakeholder access to articles
- provide a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia
Public access to information is a vital component of ensuring community engagement in prevalent issues. Wildlife crime is one of the pressing environmental issues of our time.
Wildlife crime investigations are generally covert operations requiring utmost confidentiality to succeed. Investigations and prosecutions in complex cases may take months or even years to complete. For this reason, the information that can be released to the public without compromising cases is often limited. Nonetheless, the Namibian government strives to share as much information as possible with the public.
The Namibian media has welcomed this approach and regularly publishes statistics and feature articles on wildlife crime. These are entered into the database at regular intervals, creating a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia.
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R155 billion!
A Chinese national has been sentenced in the Atlantis Regional Court after he was convicted of smuggling abalone. Qiang Chen, 29, entered into a plea and sentencing agreement with the State. In 2021, Chen was bust allegedly running an abalone facility in Melkbosstrand. He was sentenced to a fine of R1 million or five years direct imprisonment which was wholly suspended for a period of five years for contravening Section 18 (1) if the Marine Living Resources Act.
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| SA_2023_09_Chinese national sentenced for smuggling abalone_IOL.pdf | 133.03 KB |
Two former government officials have been sentenced for corruption and money laundering linked to the abalone trade, the Hawks confirmed on Saturday. The officials, Winston Mervin Busch and Nomvuyo Concellia Motloung, were among a group of 18 suspects arrested in a 2018 swoop on an abalone syndicate operating in the Western Cape. The group comprised several marine inspectors from the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as several members of an abalone poaching syndicate, the Hawks said. Twelve of the group have now been sentenced.
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| SA_2023_09_Two government officials sentenced in landmark abalone case_Times Live.pdf | 393.11 KB |
In an unrelated incident, an integrated operation led to the arrest of two suspects in Gansbaai on Friday, 17 February 2023. The team set up a vehicle checkpoint on the R43 between Gansbaai and Stanford and stopped a suspicious minibus taxi. They searched the vehicle and the occupants and confiscated 3608 units of abalone. This has an estimated to have a street value of R1.4 million.
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| SA_2023_02_Two arrested for illegal possession of abalone_The South African.pdf | 167.43 KB |
Western Cape police have arrested three men in separate incidents for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, and abalone.
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.
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| SA_2023_02_Suspects transporting abalone worth R200 000 from Mthatha to Bloemfontein nabbed_IOL.pdf | 219.02 KB |
Two hundred kilogrammes of shark fin were seized at Maputo International Airport two weeks ago, but the case is still under investigation and the Director general of Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC), Celmira da Silva said he could not provide further details on the subject. Integrity Magazine tried to question who owned the cargo as well as its origin and final destination, but without success.
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| MOZ_2023_02_Mozambique swells the ranks of law enforcement teams fighting wildlife crime_AOL.pdf | 201.24 KB |
Eastern Cape police have arrested two suspects for possession of abalone worth R1.8m in Gqeberha.
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| SA_2023_02_Two suspects bust for possession of abalone worth R1.8m in Gqeberha_TimesLive.pdf | 297.41 KB |