Ivory worth over R17m confiscated
PRETORIA: Elephant tusks believed to be worth more than R17 million were seized at a business premises in Derdepoort, north of Pretoria.
The items were taken during an operation on Wednesday conducted jointly by the Hawks and Paul O’Sullivan & Associates at Big Buck Taxidermy – albeit under mysterious circumstances.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said he was not yet aware of the operation and thus could not shed more light on the matter by late yesterday.
The officers carrying out the raid, however, wore T-shirts with “Hawks Johannesburg” branding on them and loaded 23 tusks into two unmarked vehicles.
The owner of the business refused to speak to Cape Times sister newspaper the Pretoria News.
Big Buck Taxidermy specialises in preparing, stuffing and mounting skins of animals for display like hunting trophies or museum display, among others.
The officers from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation loaded the tusks into the two vans and drove away with them.
It was still unclear where the tusks originated from and why they had been kept on the premises.
Hawks officers, who could not be named, indicated the tusks had been seized because the company no longer had a permit to keep them on the premises.
The permit had, according to the officers, expired. No one was arrested after the tusks were seized.
In a mysterious turnaround, however, affidavits leaked by undercover agents implicated the company in the alleged selling of the tusks for R17m.
The information was given to Paul O’Sullivan & Associates and later the Hawks, sparking a series of events and meetings as part of the investigation.
It was stated in the affidavit that a meeting was arranged after the buyer insisted on seeing the tusks before completing the transaction.
The business premises listed in the affidavits is the same one from where the tusks were seized.
Upon entering the premises, they were met by a person who went to the back room and grabbed a zebra skin and “quickly threw it over some things that were lying on the floor”, which later turned out to be the tusks.
They took pictures of the tusks and these were attached to the affidavit.
The Pretoria News has seen both the affidavits and the photos.