15-Mar-10 2:00 PM CST
Crackdown on Rhino Horn Trade
THE EASTERN Cape’s Green Scorpions and the police organised crime unit have played a major part in cracking down a syndicate, which trades in illegal rhino horn smuggling all over South Africa.
As a result of a huge undercover operation, during which officials of the provincial Department of Economic Development & Environmental Affairs (Dedea), combined with its counterparts in the North West province, a Vietnamese kingpin was last week sentenced in the Kimberley Regional Court for illegal trading in rhino horns.
Thien Tuan Nguyen had earlier been arrested in Kimberley following the undercover operation, which also involved the SA Police Services’ airwing.
Economic Development head of department Sybert Liebenberg said the conviction of Nguyen was a clear indication that the department had a zero tolerance approach to environmental crime.
Nguyen, a jeweller from Selwood in Port Elizabeth, was given a R200 000 fine, of which R100 000 was suspended for four years.
The court also ordered the Asset Forfeiture Unit to attach R1.3 million Nguyen had paid undercover agents for the 14 rhino horns he bought from them during the sting operation.
The combined operation came after it was reported last year that Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Le Dung, admitted that an employee at the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa, Vu Moc Anh, suspected to have been involved in rhino horn smuggling, was returning home.
Dung affirmed the Foreign Ministry’s policy of strictly punishing any employee who traded and trafficked in wild animals.
Three years ago, Commercial Attaché Khanh Toan, at the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa, was detected to have connections to rhino horn smuggling and was punished, according to the embassy.
The Herald last year also reported that rhino horn and ivory worth an estimated R850 000 had been stolen in a dramatic heist at the Addo Elephant National Park. Five armed men who hit the famous tourist destination also made off with five R1 assault rifles. - By EDDIE BOTHA, Investigations Editor
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Source: Daily Dispatch Online
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=387201
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