Michael Mashiri
Zim Now Correspondent
Five men suspected to have been dealing in ivory have been taken to court.
Peter Chipanga, 47, of East View, Innocent Mudondo, 37, Tonderai Boora, 37, Evidence Zinhoro, 39, and Washington Gondo, 36, all of Old Tafara, appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts charged with unlawful possession of raw marked ivory.
They were ordered to appear in court on May 24.
The State alleges that on May 9, at around 0700 hours, detectives from CID MFFU, Harare were informed that the accused persons had ivory in Mabvuku, and one of the detectives managed to get one of the accused’s contact numbers and called him, pretending to be an ivory buyer.
The accused agreed to meet the detectives at Choppies Supermarket, Kamunhu Shopping Centre, Mabvuku, Harare.
The detectives went to the area in one car and when they were just a distance away from the meeting point, three of the detectives acting as back-up team came out of the car and completed the journey on foot, while the other detective, who pretended to be a buyer, went to Choppies Supermarket.
The detective pretending to be a buyer arrived first at the Supermarket, and the back-up team later arrived and put the area under surveillance.
When the accused persons arrived, they had already been given the description of the detective’s car and went to the car.
The court heard that Chipanga came with Mudondo and Boora to where the detective was parked and entered the car.
Chipanga and Mudondo occupied the rear passenger seat while Boora occupied the front passenger seat and discussion ensued over the price of the ivory.
The accused showed the detective the pieces of ivory, who gave a signal to the back-up team to pounce on the accused persons.
The detectives closed in on the accused, introduced themselves as police officers by showing their identity cards.
The accused tried to flee from but were stopped after one of the detectives fired a warning shot in the air from a service pistol.
They managed to recover the two pieces of ivory which were displayed on Chipanga and Mudondo’s laps.
The three accused implicated Zinhoro and Gondo as the one who brought the ivory, leading to their arrest.
They were asked to produce any document authorising them to possess the ivory but they failed.
Parks and Wildlife officials assayed, examined the recovered ivory as raw unmarked ivory weighing 2.69 kilogrammes valued at US$455.30.
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