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Oshikoto police regional commander Commissioner Teopolina Kalompo-Nashikaku has issued a stern warning to poachers, saying they risk their lives by engaging with armed anti-poaching units. Without mincing her words, she warned that the authorities are committed to protecting the country's fauna and flora and said poachers risk their own lives if they shoot at security personnel deployed to safeguard wildlife species.

Police have arrested a suspected poacher in South Africa found with tens of thousands of dollars' worth of dry abalone, a coveted delicacy smuggled mainly to Asia, the environment ministry said Wednesday. The motorist, a South African man, had 27 black plastic bags containing more than 13,000 of the molluscs, the ministry said. The bags, weighing 640 kilos (more than 1,410 pounds), were worth more than one million rand ($55,000, 50,000 euros), authorities said. Poachers loot South Africa's coasts of the highly sought-after sea snail, which is protected by strict fishing quotas.…

Demand for South Africa's abalone is so high it underpins an international smuggling trade estimated to be worth nearly £100m each year. The poachers who gather on the windswept beaches of South Africa's rocky Cape coast are immediately recognisable by the tools of their trade. Pick-up trucks drop them off clad in wetsuits and carrying diving cylinders, then they head out into the waves on fast rubber boats. Their work is not for the faint-hearted. The waters can be treacherous and divers must also avoid becoming prey for the area's plentiful great white sharks.

Cape Town - A foreign national is expected to appear in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Wednesday after he was found in possession of abalone worth over R634 000.

Government is working around the clock to fight wildlife crime and corruption, especially in the Kruger National Park, says Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy.

A 51-year-old man is expected to appear in a Free State court after he was found with abalone shells worth more than R300,000. The man was arrested in Bayswater in Mangaung on Thursday afternoon after intelligence-led information led police to his home, Free State police spokesperson Lt-Col Thabo Covane said. "A team made up of tactical response team members and detectives arrived at the targeted unit in the identified complex at about 12.45pm." Members tactically gained access to the unit and found the male hiding inside the bedroom.

Ten suspects arrested for allegedly running an illegal perlemoen operation appeared in the Gqeberha magistrate’s court on Monday. Acting on a tip-off, the Hawks' Economic Protected Resources team in Gqeberha followed up on information about perlemoen activities at a residential premises in Algoa Park. Surveillance was conducted and law enforcement was granted a warrant to execute a search on Thursday last week, leading to the discovery of an alleged illegal operation.

Collaboration between SAPS Cookhouse and Graaff-Reinet members saw the arrest of two men in connection with the discovery of abalone worth over R3 million on Tuesday night. Police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu said at about 7pm, SAPS Cookhouse highway patrol members received information of a blue Toyota Camry and a Porsche Cayenne pulling a trailer, travelling on the R75 from Kariega towards Graaff-Reinet with illegal abalone.