GABORONE, November 30(ANA) – Namibian Police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga has confirmed that the 18 rhinos horns that were carried by a Chinese man through the Hosea Kutako International Airport to South Africa were indeed detected by the airport security scanners.
Addressing the media in Windhoek on Tuesday, Ndeitunga vowed to take “very, very stiff measures” against all police officers who were on airport security duty when Ye Zhuwei passed through with 18 rhino horns stashed in a suitcase.
Zhuwei, who was arrested on arrival at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg where he intended to board a connecting flight to Hong Kong, was remanded in custody following his initial court appearance on charges of rhino horn trafficking last Friday.
Ndeitunga said police were investigating why and how Zhuwei was allowed to proceed after the detection of the rhino horn stash by the security scanners.
He said it was clear that the officers who were operating the scanners somehow chose to ignore the rhino horn luggage and allowed Zhuwei to board the flight.
“There was gross negligence on the part of the police officers who were on airport security duty at the particular time. I will take very, very stiff measures against them, but I will first wait for the (investigating) team’s report,” Nditunga said.
On Tuesday, Namibian Airports Company (NAC) chief executive officer Tamer el Kallawi said he was surprised that Zhuwei was allowed through airport security checks despite being the horns being detected and shown clearly on the CCTV footage. He said the horns were so visible that even untrained eyes would have seen them.
Ndeitunga said the police were also probing the possibility that some of the 18 horns could have been sourced from the seven rhinos that were poached earlier this month at Etosha National Park. He said they would examine the horns to see if they could be linked to some rhino carcasses recovered in the past few weeks.
– African News Agency (ANA)
(Photo: Namibian Airports Company)
