Thirty leading poachers held in crackdown

Arusha. The Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (Tawa), in cooperation with the national task force against poaching, has broken a network of poaching after arresting over 30 kingpins in one year.

Speaking in an exclusive interview to The Citizen, the Tawa deputy commissioner for Conservation and Poaching Control Unit, Mr Mabula Misungwi, said the controlling of the notorious poachers had made elephants become safer.

However, he said a case had been lodged against the accused while other suspects were under investigations, explaining that the aim was to ensure that all the suspects were taken to a court of law.

“We have discovered poaching networks as each has at least eight people: the main buyer, cash suppliers, gun target shooters, transporters and other service providers,” said Misungwi.

Misungwi explained that in fighting poaching they decided to fight against such groups and that they managed to control them, saying Tanzania had become a model in poaching control in Africa.

“We have controlled poaching because of controlling our intelligentsia, especially when we arrest someone with elephant tusks and who is involved in shooting an elephant dead.”