Two rhinos were brutally shot and killed at a safari farm in Paterson on Wednesday evening, earlier this week in the Sarah Baartman District.
The poachers have managed to find their way to the farm before stalking, shooting and killing the adult rhinos, then removing both of them.
A police report said that two rhinos, one male and the other female, were last spotted during an afternoon game drive. He was only found dead by game wardens in the evening when more tourists arrived on another game drive.
A case of illegal hunting of protected animals without a permit is under investigation and the police are now hunting the perpetrators.
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Just a week earlier, in a separate incident, a Chinese national in Mpumalanga was sentenced to prison by the Kempton Park Regional Court for illegal dealing in rhino horn.
Shiuhau Chen, 57, was found guilty of three counts of illegal transactions in Rhinoceros Horn and an immigration violation when he appeared in court on January 20, 2022.
Rhino horn syndicate
Chen along with Eugene Huang and 49-year-old Ping Wu were arrested in August 2019 by the Middelburg-based Serious Hawks Organized Crime investigation team during a project-backed investigation into a rhino horn syndicate operating between Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces.
The inmate and his friends paid for the rhino horn in a controlled buy between 2018 and 2019.
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Ping Wu was charged with money laundering for his involvement. They help to deposit the proceeds of the rhino horn transaction into the Casino account. Ping Wu was sentenced in March 2022 by the Tembisa District Court while his partner Huang died in prison during the trial.
A forfeiture order was granted in March 2022 for the money paid to the agent, as well as money in the casino account and two vehicles belonging to the accused, Huang and Chen. The case against Chen was adjourned until February 10, 2023 for sentencing.
*Compiled by Devina Haripersad