A U.S. national has been arrested in South Africa on wildlife trafficking and firearms charges, South African authorities have announced. Derek Lewitton, a Texan, was arrested Dec. 22 following a raid on his Harmony Gate Estate ranch in Limpopo Province by the South African Police Services’ Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) units. Limpopo Police […]
Tag: rhino horns
Malaysian nicknamed the ‘Godfather’ jailed in US for rhino horn trafficking – Video Investigation
Teo Boon Ching, a Malaysian wildlife trafficker known by a range of aliases including the Godfather, has been jailed for 18 months in the United States for smuggling hundreds of kilos of horns from endangered rhinoceros. Ching, 58, was arrested in Thailand on a US extradition request in June 2022, after a covert operation exposed […]
Thai Poaching Kingpin Sentenced to Prison
After years of investigations and appeals, Bach “Boonchai” Mai, the alleged leader of a major international wildlife trafficking ring, has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Thai Supreme Court. Mai was convicted of attempting to smuggle 14 rhino horns into Thailand, but his network, Hydra, has been involved in trafficking ivory, rhino […]
Ivory trader in Uganda jailed for life in country’s harshest sentence for the crime
A Ugandan ivory trader has been sentenced to life in prison – the country’s longest ever sentence for the crime. Pascal Ochiba was arrested in January this year in a suburb of the capital Kampala with two pieces of ivory, weighing around 10kg. He was convicted for unlawful possession of protected species, the state-run Uganda […]
Trafficked: Kidnapped chimps, jailed rhino horn traffickers, and seized donkey parts
LUBUMBASHI Democratic Republic of Congo Three chimpanzees have been kidnapped and are being held for ransom after intruders broke into a primate sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Franck Chantereau, founder of the J.A.C.K. Primate Rehabilitation Centre, says the kidnappers got into the 7-hectare (17-acre) facility in the southern city of Lubumbashi at around 3 […]
A string of poaching massacres has broken out across South Africa, with poachers slaughtering 24 rhinos in one month alone
International trade is the second-largest threat to wildlife after habitat loss. On average, poachers in South Africa have killed more than one rhino each day in 2020, for a total of at least 394 butchered rhinos to feed the demand for ivory and rhino horn. But that doesn’t compare to this wave of killings from […]
Mercilessly slaughtered for their horns… even though one was just a prosthetic: Four rhinos – including a pregnant female – are killed and one fights for life after they were mutilated by poachers
Poachers mercilessly slaughtered four rhinos including a pregnant female at a private game reserve and wounded a fifth with a shot to the head – just to saw off their horns for cash. The gang used high powered rifles fitted with silencers to butcher the herd and even sawed off a prosthetic fibreglass horn which […]
Armed suspected rhino poacher shot dead at Kruger National Park
CAPE TOWN – An armed suspected poacher was shot dead while his accomplice managed to escape when Kruger National Park (KNP) rangers followed up after hearing gunshots and stumbled upon them. A backpack with two rhino horns was recovered next to the body of the suspect, as well as a large-calibre rifle and poaching equipment. […]