Four suspects arrested Saturday for possession of nine elephant tusks at Kamutjonga appeared in the Ndiyona Periodical Court on Tuesday.
A periodical court is not a daily or weekly court, as it only convenes when cases arise in a specific area.
Ndiyona settlement is located 120 km east of Rundu.
The four suspects, Djami Kamana Joseph (38) – a Namibian, Ndhara Ngocho (34) and Sheks Chombo (30) – both Botswana nationals, and Ngambole Alberto (48) – an Angolan appeared before magistrate Barry Mufana while Albert Titus prosecuted.
The case was postponed to June 15 this year for further police investigations and the suspects were denied bail and will remain in police custody until their next court appearance. The four were arrested at Kamutjionga after a police search conducted at around 07h00 last Saturday and found the nine tusks that they were in possession of.
Possession of elephant tusks is prohited and is prosecutable.
Detective Chief Inspector Chrispin Mubebo of the Namibian Police Force in Kavango East said the search was done following a tip-off from the community.
“As you know, we are busy investigating the illegal activities of poaching in that area so with information from the public we got that the suspects were looking for customers for the tusks, we started a sting operation to catch them. The Namibian suspect is from that area and the others seem to have joined him,” Mubebo naratted.
On April 3, an elephant was found dead at Muit’jiku village of Kavango East in the Buffalo core area of Bwabwata West National Park with gunshot wounds.
Muit’jiku is located in Bwabwata West National Park in Mukwe Constituency in Kavango East.
The carcass was discovered on Friday morning by villagers who in turn alerted the police at Divundu.
It was believed to have been poached. An initial probe found two gunshot wounds in the carcass, which made investigators suspect it was illegally shot.
According to the police, the elephant had its tusks intact, as the poachers appeared to have hurriedly left the scene after they were probably disturbed.
There has been an upsurge in cases of elephant and rhino poaching with 11 elephants poached and at least 12 rhinos gunned down so far this year across Namibia.