Inside info helped rhino-horn thieves
Police say they are ‘close’ to breakthrough in nabbing gang of professionals who carried out huge heist
POLICE investigating one of South Africa’s biggest rhinohorn heists yet say they are confident they are “close” to catching the thieves.
“We’re going to get them,” said a top-level official who is on the case.
Two officials close to the investigation spoke to the Sunday Times this week. One said police were looking for a group of professionals who had inside knowledge of how and where the rhino horn had been stockpiled for safekeeping and knew “how to get it”.
“These people knew exactly what they were doing,” he said.
He said the stolen-horn haul had been split up but hinted that police were onto the robbers.
“Various warehouses and locations are under surveillance.”
The rhino horn stash had been kept in two reinforced steel safes at the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency in Nelspruit. It was stolen last Sunday. Since then the CEO of Mpumalanga Tourism, Jacques Modipane, has been suspended, according to Democratic Alliance’s Anthony Benadie.
The thieves, believed to be part of a syndicate involved in poaching, sawed through the steel safes using power tools.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said 40 horns worth an estimated R160-million had been stolen. But the Sunday Times has been told that “as many as 112 horns are, in fact, missing”. They would be worth an estimated R500-million.
Following the break-in, top detective, Lieutenant-General Vineshkumar Moonoo, was in
We’re surviving in the park. We’re not winning yet, but we have plans
Skukuza, the main camp in the Kruger Park, on Thursday for “urgent meetings”.
A member of the South African National Parks Board said “Moonoo came to get a reality check” on the extent of the poaching. Moonoo’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Sunday Times reported last week that Kruger was losing a bloody and relentless war against rhino poaching.
The remaining 600 black rhinos could be wiped out as early as next year unless the carnage is stopped. There are only some 9 000 white rhinos and 600 black rhinos left in the park.
Both species have been declared threatened internationally, with the black rhino regarded as critically endangered. Since the Sunday Times exposé, another 18 rhinos have been killed in the park.
“We’re surviving in the park. We’re not winning yet, but we have plans,” a senior ranger said.
“The Sunday Times story was a big wake-up call for various people inside and outside the park . . . People are really rattled, and the rangers are feeling the pressure. We’ve had an ugly full-moon period again. It was rough. But it was not as bad as we thought.”
With the ink barely dry on a memorandum of understanding signed between Mozambique and South Africa in Skukuza last week, another estimated 60 groups of armed poachers crossed into the park from Mozambique during the fullmoon week, April 12-17.
“On any given moment during the 12th to the 17th, there were 12 different armed groups of rhino poachers in the park — and that’s a conservative estimation,” a senior employee said.
This year, 94 poachers have been arrested or shot and killed in South Africa, 40 in the Kruger Park alone. Between 70% and 90% of all poachers enter the park from Mozambique.
The agreement between the governments of Mozambique and South Africa makes provision for joint operations, but does not allow South African rangers or security forces to pursue poachers into Mozambique.
Three weeks ago, Howard Buffett, a son of US tycoon Warren Buffett, pledged R253-million to the Kruger Park for security measures. The Sunday Times understands that Buffett pledged the money because the park has “a bankable plan to deal with the poaching”.
Park spokesman William Mabasa said the money was being used to:
Increase protection in the south of the park where 60% of the rhinos live;
Upgrade the Mozambique-Kruger Park border fence;
Buy another helicopter to bring the park’s fleet to four; and
Invest in improving the park’s intelligence gathering.
“Shooting poachers doesn’t help because they’re replaced. There are lots of people with bush skills who will replace a poaching team. Intelligence will help us to stop this poaching,” said Mabasa.