Two bust with rhino horn at OR Tambo International

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Two men have been arrested at OR Tambo International Airport for being in possession of rhino horn worth an estimated R4.5m.

The SA Revenue Service said two foreign nationals traveling from Maputo to Vietnam via Johannesburg were intercepted in the international departures section of the airport on Friday
for additional searches.

A Sars detector dog trained specifically to detect rhino horn, reacted positively to the two bags that the men were carrying.

They were found to contain 34 large pieces of horn, weighing 41 kilograms.

Sars spokesperson, Marika Muller, says this was the biggest ever seizure of rhino horn by the Sars customs team at OR Tambo International.

Five Mozambicans and a Zimbabwean are due to appear in the Skukuza Periodical Court in Mpumalanga next week on several charged that include rhino poaching.

The six were arrested in two separate incidents by the police's Skukuza-based rhino task team in the Kruger National Park.

Lieutenant General Solomon Makgale says the have already appeared in court and their case postponed to next Wednesday.

In another case three Mozambicans were arrested in Kruger's Lower Sabi Section minutes after they killed a white rhino on Sunday the 26th.

Makgale says the arrests were preceded by a shootout in which one poacher was fatally wounded.

This group will appear in court on 12 November.