Events that led to arrest of ‘Ivory Queen’
Ms Yang Fenglan (centre) under police escort at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam on October 7, 2015. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
The man he was to bring in is one of the three suspects in the Sh5.4 billion ivory smuggling case involving Yang Feng Glan, the Chinese woman, commonly known as the ‘Queen of Ivory’.
Dar es Salaam. On April 18, 2014, Corporal Lugano was at his work station when he received a call from the police headquarters. It was an order to arrest one Manase Philemon. The man he was to bring in is one of the three suspects in the Sh5.4 billion ivory smuggling case involving Yang Feng Glan, the Chinese woman, commonly known as the ‘Queen of Ivory’.
“We began looking for Mr Philemon, who according to the information we were provided with, frequented recreational places in the Stakishari suburb,” he told the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Two days after that phone call, on April 20, 2014, the officer got another tip-off. This time, around 7:30am, it was on the whereabouts of the suspect. He was told the man they were looking for was seen in Segerea, Dar es Salaam.
“We went there immediately alongside my colleagues and arrested Mr Philemon and took him to the police station for interrogation before he was charged,” he said. These are some of events that led to the arrest of the ‘Queen of Ivory’ and her alleged accomplices as the court heard from the police officer yesterday.
Led by State Attorney Faraja Nchimbi, Corporal Lugano told Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi that between 2013 and 2015 he was working at the Stakishari Police Station, in Dar es Salaam.
In his testimony, the police officer, an investigator from the Central Police Station in Dar es Salaam, narrated how Mr Philemon was netted.
According to the Prosecution, Ms Glan was later arrested following confessions by her co-accused. The other suspect in the case is Mr Salivius Matembo, another Tanzania. Mr Philemon is also separately charged with escaping from lawful custody.
It was alleged that on May 21, 2014 at Sinza Palestina in Kinondoni District, the accused escaped from police custody after he was detained for illegally possessing elephant tusks.
The three were arraigned on October 7 last year, and accused of being involved in the smuggling and trading in 706 elephant tusks weighing 1,889kg worth Sh5.4 billion.
