Tiny clues that help catch poachers

WHEN suspected poacher Joseph “Big Joe” Nyalunga was stopped by police somewhere between Nelspruit and Gauteng‚ it appeared they were too late.

Investigators found bags that they suspected had held rhino horn‚ but they were empty.

The horn had allegedly been passed on to the next rung in the rhino poaching industry in its preparation to be exported out of South Africa.

But investigators hoped there might still be clues left in the bag‚ so they sent them to the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of Pretoria.

“There was basically dust in the bags‚” Dr Cindy Harper‚ of the laboratory, said.

But Harper and her colleagues were able to tease DNA from the dust and link it to two poached Kruger National Park rhinos.

The “dust case” was one of more than 5 800 forensic investigations that involved the use of the Rhino DNA Index System or RhODIS‚ and it is this crime-fighting tool that is the subject of an article in Current Biology.

The article highlighted how successful the system is in linking rhino horn seized from criminals to poached carcasses found thousands of kilometres away.

Since 2011‚ when RhODIS was established‚ it has been used in more than 120 cases where rhino carcasses were tied to either recovered horn or blood-stained objects used in the commission of the crime.

Evidence taken at crime scenes or seized at airports was compared to DNA profiles of tens of thousands of rhino, Harper said.

The report in Current Biology highlighted nine cases where RhODIS was able to make DNA matches‚ and that evidence was used in the successful prosecution of perpetrators.

One case involved three horns taken from two rhinos that were poached in the Kruger National Park.

The Mozambican national responsible was sentenced to 29 years in prison.