Maputo, 05 Feb (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) on Friday arrested two Vietnamese citizens in possession of 19 rhinoceros horns at Maputo International Airport.
In addition to rhinoceros horns, the individuals, who were preparing to return to Vietnam, were also carrying in their three suitcases 18 lion claws.
Week ago, a Mozambican, named Alves Chongo, was arrested by the South African authorities for trafficking rhino horns.
According to Mozambique Bio, an institution dedicated to disseminating content on Mozambique’s Biodiversity, the individual, better known in the southern city of Chókwè as Thu Bobo, could be sentenced to between 10 and 16 years in prison.
Chongo has lived in South Africa for more than 40 years, where he is accused of leading groups of criminals, including car thieves, and traffickers in wildlife products.
According to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, he has been arrested several times in South Africa, where he was protected by his former wife. The paper did not name her, but said she was a former minister in the post-apartheid governments led by Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
In 2023, a Vietnamese woman was sentenced in Maputo to 16 years in prison for trafficking of wildlife products, including rhino horns and lion claws.
According to Mozambique’s National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), the Vietnamese woman intended to export the products from Maputo International Airport in 2020, “where she was arrested in possession of 127 lion claws, 36 lion teeth and five rhino horns.”
According to a 2022 study, carried out by researchers at the University of Cambridge, rhinoceros horns have gradually decreased in size in just over a century and this change is likely in response to intensive hunting.
(AIM)
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