Authorities fighting poaching
in Mozambique and Tanzania
have captured an important figure in the slaughter of elephants in the Niassa
National Reserve. This is Mateso Albano Kasian, a Tanzanian citizen with a
Mozambican identity card, who is suspected of being the accomplice of the group
of Chinese citizens from the city of Shuidong who dominate the ivory trade to
Asia via the port of Pemba.
His detention took place on 11
July in Montepuez, Cabo Delgado, as a result of close collaboration between the
National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), the Tanzania Government’s
National & Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU), the
Niassa National Reserve, the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC)
and the Attorney General of the Republic of Mozambique.
According to @Verdade, Kasian,
also known as Mateso Chupi, had been sought by the authorities of the
neighbouring country since 2013 and by national authorities since 2014 on the
basis of evidence suggesting he was the leader of an extensive network of
poachers in the Reserve Niassa National Park.
Hussein Twalibu Safi, one of
Mateso’s operatives, was detained in Tanzania with eight tusks and a gun and
ammunition in June of last year and confessed that he worked for Kasian.
According to anti-poaching
authorities, Safi was responsible for the slaughter of 26 elephants in the
Niassa National Reserve during the first months of 2017 alone. The elephant
population in the country’s largest reserve has fallen from more than 11,000 in
2011 to just 6,000 in 2015
Mozambican ports and airports
are “hubs” of trafficking
@Verdade sources say that
Kasian is one of the main suppliers of ivory to the Shuidong Chinese who
dominates the trade to Asia and uses as Pemba, in Cabo Delgado as their main
port of exit because of the ease of bribing public officials involved in the
export process.
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