Pistorius trial cop called up in new battle against poaching

Two of South Africa's most seasoned detectives - both involved in the Oscar Pistorius murder investigation - have been roped in to fight rhino poaching.

Lieutenant-General Vineshkumar Moonoo, the police' s head of detectives, will oversee a new team tasked with cracking rhino horn syndicates. The other top policeman responsible for the case against Pistorius - Captain Mike van Aardt - has also been called up.

Van Aardt referred a request for comment about his role in the new team to police management, but the Sunday Times has learnt that he spent more than a week in the Kruger National Park during a recess in the Pistorius trial.

One of the key areas that has hindered the police's rhino-poaching investigations so far has been ineffective crime scene management.

In some cases, ballistic and forensic tests were never carried out, meaning the police have been unable to link some cases of poaching to others.

Now the police will build a database of existing and new cases in the hope that this will help to identify trends and lead to a crackdown on syndicates.

National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega cited "proper crime scene investigation and management" as one of the multidisciplinary team's focus areas during an announcement this week. She confirmed that teams visited numerous sites where rhinos were killed in the Kruger.

So far this year, 408 rhino have been killed in the park.

Last year, 1004 rhinos were killed in South Africa; 606 of those were killed in the Kruger.

The enormity of the task awaiting Moonoo and Van Aardt was described by one detective as "unlike any murder scene where you have a room or a house as the scene of the crime".

"The [Kruger] is bigger than some countries and the problem is you sometimes get to the scene days after [the killing] happened and the natural elements have destroyed evidence," said the detective.

"Seasoned detectives will tell you the faster they get to a scene, the better their chances of collecting vital evidence."

Phiyega said the police would use more resources in their investigations, including forensic experts, aircraft for patrols and dog units. The team of detectives has already helped to identify existing dockets that could be linked to bigger poaching syndicates.

Poachers mostly make use of heavy-calibre weaponry such as .357 or .458 rifles fitted with silencers. It takes poachers about 10 minutes from the time they gun down a rhino to hack off its horn and flee the scene.

The police suspect that most poachers illegally cross the border into the Kruger from Mozambique, and a new agreement now enables investigators in "hot pursuit" of poachers to cross into that country.

Despite the increase in rhino poaching over the past six years, the police have had little presence in the park, leaving most of the work to SANParks rangers.

The police have a small office situated at the main camp, Skukuza , but two of the three officers stationed there were removed after they were found to have helped rhino poachers.

In January this year, a police helicopter used to help with intelligence gathering and anti-poaching operations was withdrawn by the police.

Thus far, police officers from Hazyview and Nelspruit were used to follow up on intelligence gathered inside the park. Cases were then referred to the Hawks in Nelspruit.