TANZANIA'S POACHING SYNDICATE IDENTIFIED

By  Mussa Juma,The Citizen Correspondent

Posted  Tuesday, March 17  2015 at  09:11

 

Arusha. About 40 key masterminds of a poaching syndicate, including their ringleader, have been nabbed, anti-poaching department head with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) Robert Mande has said.

Thanks to a task force formed by the government to destroy the network of the poaching masterminds who are currently under thorough scrutiny.  President Jakaya Kikwete hinted to an international anti-poaching gathering in London last year that the ringleader of the vice resided in Arusha.

Mande said an investigation jointly conducted by security organs and the anti-poaching units from NCA, Serengeti, Manyara, and Tarangire national parks had successfully nabbed members of the syndicate.

Mande, who doubles as the Serengeti Ecology coordinator, told a section of visiting members of the Tanzania Journalists for Tourism (TJT) at Ngorongoro that some of the suspects had already been arraigned. 

He said the investigation had also enabled the Task Force to identify five categories of the poaching masterminds. While the first category comprised members of the communities surrounding protected areas who served as informers, the second consisted of poachers armed with weapons or poison for killing jumbos.  The third category involved experts in transporting ivory to middlemen.The fourth category was made of facilitators, he said.