Foreigners smuggling plan fails
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20070710191752948C119970

Two Vietnamese nationals were arrested at OR Tambo International airport on Tuesday in possession of four rhino horns, the department of environmental affairs and tourism said.

"Customs officials came across four rhino horns in checked luggage. They called in Gauteng environmental management inspectors [EMIs, nicknamed the Green Scorpions], who seized the rhino horns and quickly arrested two Vietnamese nationals," said spokesperson Mava Scott.

Scott said a shipment of coral, listed as a species banned for trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), was seized.

About 5kg of dagga was also found in the international mail centre.

Scott said the seizures highlighted the links between trade in endangered species and drugs.

At Durban harbour, the Green Scorpions used sniffer dogs from the South  African Revenue Service (SARS) to find rhino horn, ivory, perlemoen (abalone), crayfish and other illegal substances.

Scott said the seizures resulted from the department's Compliance and Enforcement Day in which about 100 Green Scorpions descended on border posts to monitor incoming and outgoing products.

SARS and the police were also involved.

"The purpose of this event was to highlight the illegal trade in endangered species, which threatens South Africa natural heritage.

"Globally, the illegal trade in wildlife is worth more than R50-billion annually - second only to the international drugs trade," said Scott.

Inspectors were on the lookout for ivory, rhino horn, perlemoen, corals, fish and caviar, birds and eggs, spiders and reptiles, leather, skin and shell products, timber, and live wild animals.

They also monitored the movement of hazardous chemicals and waste, and ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), banned for trade under the Montreal Protocol.

Scott said the operation set the scene for closer co-operation between the green scorpions and SARS customs officials.

Environmental criminals are very organised, which means that we have to  be even more organised, he said.

No further details on the arrests and seizures were immediately available.

The following border posts were monitored: Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth Harbours; OR Tambo International, Cape Town International, Lanseria and Wonderboom airports; Golela Border Post and Sani Pass Border Post in KZN; the Giriyondo border post with Mozambique in the Kruger National Park; Quacha Neck border post in Eastern Cape; the Lebombo Border Post in Mpumalanga; the Nakop and Vioolsdrift Border  Posts in Northern Cape; the Kopfontein border post in North West; the Ficksburg Bridge and Maseru Bridge Border posts in Free State; and Beit Bridge Border post in Limpopo. - Sapa