Police investigate Grace over ivory smuggling claims

● Zimbabwean police have launched an investigation into Grace Mugabe over allegations that she headed a poaching and smuggling syndicate that illegally exported tons of elephant tusks, gold and diamonds from the country.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa sanctioned an “urgent” investigation into the former first lady’s activities after “very strong” evidence was uncovered by Adrian Steirn, an Australian photojournalist.

Mugabe was named as the alleged mastermind of the illegal operation by two suspected poachers who were arrested in a police sting after trying to sell tusks to Steirn. She has not yet been charged.

Steirn posed as a customer for contraband ivory to infiltrate the smuggling and poaching networks.

Undercover footage shows several people, including suspected poachers and intelligence, wildlife and aviation officials, describing how Mugabe smuggled ivory poached in national parks or looted from government warehouses out of the country by exploiting an exemption from airport security screening as first lady.

They include Fariken Madzinga, a registered dealer of ivory who describes in the footage how he also runs a syndicate that handles both poached ivory and tusks stolen from the government’s secure stockpiles of wildlife products on behalf of Mugabe.

In conversations with Steirn recorded before his arrest, Madzinga described how he relies on “the president and first lady” to get contraband tusks out of the country. “In order for it to pass through customs, the goods of the first lady were not searched. She had immunity from the government.”

Madzinga and Tafadzwa Pamire are due to appear in court on April 9 charged with illegal possession of raw tusks.

Steirn, who will be the main state witness in the trial, said he has received death threats warning him not to testify.

Christopher Mutsvangwa, a former leader of the powerful association of war veterans and a long-standing Zanu-PF critic of Mugabe, said: “The government of Zimbabwe will seek answers from all parties who have been implicated in this matter, including former first lady Grace Mugabe.”

Mutsvangwa said there was mounting evidence that the gang included high-ranking members of Mugabe’s security apparatus. — © The Daily Telegraph, London