Men arrested over possession of pangolin carcass

Michael Mashiri

Zim Now Correspondent

Two men, who tried to sell a pangolin carcass - which they did not have papers for - have been taken court.

Elisha Mafuta, 32, Epworth and Emmanuel Kandikore, 33, of Chief Zvimba, appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Courts charged with contravening the Parks and Wildlife Act.

They will appear in court on June 3.

The State alleges that on May 6, at around 0700 hours, detectives from CID MFFU, Harare were informed that the accused had a pangolin in the Avenues area.

One of the detectives managed to get Mafuta’s phone number and called him, pretending to be a pangolin buyer.

The accused agreed to meet with the detectives at Pennywise Shopping Centre, along Samora Machel Avenue.

The detectives drove there accompanied by another car with a backup team.

The backup team arrived first and placed the area under surveillance.

The other detectives arrived a bit later and called Mafuta to come with the pangolin into their car to complete the transaction.

Mafuta allegedly went into the detectives' car and negotiated the price of the pangolin.

The accused then went out to collect the pangolin after agreeing on the price.

The court heard that Mafuta and Kandikore went back with a blue shangani bag while the detectives signalled the backup team to close in.

The backup team came and introduced themselves, searched the shangani bag and recovered one pangolin carcass wrapped in a plastic bag and a sack.

They were asked to produce documentation authorising them to possess the pangolin but they failed, leading to their arrest.

On realising they were under arrest, Mafuta tried to disarm one of the detectives as they tried to escape, but the other detective fired three warning shots but the accused persons did not stop.

As a result, Mafuta was shot on the upper right arm.

The pangolin carcass was assayed and found to be worth US$5 000.