MUTARE – A police sergeant and assistant inspector have been charged with possession of specially protected animal species after they tried to flog a dead pangolin for US$6,000 to undercover officers.
Sergeant Vhimba Marufu, 40, and Assistant Inspector Kasiyama Kololo, 37, both based at Inyati Police Station in Rusape, were arrested on July 8 together with 33-year-old Remember Mabvudzi.
The men appeared in court in Mutare on Saturday and were remanded in custody.
The National Prosecuting Authority said detectives from CID Minerals, Flora and Fauna Unit in Mutare received information that the three men were in possession of a live pangolin and were looking for a buyer.
Detectives teamed up with a team from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and arranged the buy by phone.
At 9AM on July 8, Kololo, Marufu and Mabvudzi – who were driving in a silver Toyota Baby Quantum – met the undercover detectives at a Total Service Station in Rusape where the purchase price was agreed.
The three men drove off and later returned with a dead pangolin stashed in a white polythene 10kg bag which was hidden behind the driver’s seat.
The detectives produced their police identity cards and introduced themselves, but the trio allegedly tried to resist arrest leading to the detectives firing a warning shot in the air to subdue them.
Meanwhil,e on July 9, police in Inyathi, Matabeleland North, arrested Ndaniso Mpande, 33, and Benjamin Ndlovu, 23, for being found in possession of a live pangolin at Mlotshana shopping centre.
Pangolins are trafficked by poachers due to their highly coveted scales which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
In 1975, pangolins were placed on Zimbabwe’s Specially Protected Species list, which affords the species full protection.
According to Zimbabwean law, any person convicted of the unlawful killing, possession of, or trading in any Specially Protected Species is liable, on first conviction, to imprisonment for a period of not less than nine years, and for a second or subsequent conviction to imprisonment for a period of not less than eleven years.
