US national arrested in South Africa on wildlife trafficking, weapons charges

US national arrested in South Africa on wildlife trafficking, weapons charges

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 […]

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The world's remaining rhinos are mostly in Africa [File: Daniel Irungu/EPA]

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 […]

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Trafficked: Kidnapped chimps, jailed rhino horn traffickers, and seized donkey parts

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 […]

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A string of poaching massacres has broken out across South Africa, with poachers slaughtering 24 rhinos in one month alone

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 […]

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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

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 […]

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