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Three Harare men appeared in court charged with illegal possession of ivory after they were caught with 37kgs of elephant tasks.
The three are Bhekithemba Mathe (30), Thando Mpala (26) and Talent Ganya (30).
They appeared before Harare Magistrate, Yeukai Dzuda, who advised them to seek bail at the High Court.
They will be back in court on May 20, 2022.
It is the state’s case that on May 4, 2022, detectives received a tipoff that the three were in possession of ivory and looking for buyers.
Two of the detectives were given contact details of Ganya, whom they contacted pretending to be buyers and they agreed to meet.
The detectives met Ganya, who led them to Warren Park 1, while other detectives followed behind unnoticed.
When they arrived in Warren Park 1, Ganya contacted his accomplices.
They reached an agreement to sell the ivory for US$80/kg.
The detectives were instructed to drive and park on Westwood Street for easy transportation, since they claimed that the ivory was heavy.
Mpala and Mathe then allegedly went to their place of residence and came back driving a silver Toyota Spacio with the ivory in the boot.
The detectives were called to weigh the ivory and while they were still in the process of doing so, a backup team pounced on the unsuspecting trio.
They introduced themselves to the trio by producing their police identity cards and asked the trio to produce a license authorizing them to be in possession of ivory, which they failed to do, leading to their arrest.
Further investigations revealed that Mpala had brought the from Bulawayo having been given by one Mthulisi Moyo who is still at large.
Faith Mavhudzi represented the state.
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