Arms probe links Czech guns to Kruger rhino slaughter

A gunrunning network dubbed the Rhino Rifle Syndicate is behind a worldwide plot to equip Kruger National Park poachers with high-powered Czech-made rifles.

May 26, 2019 at 00:00 am

A proposed amendment to the Meat Safety Act aims to incorporate the so-called bush meat industry into commercial agriculture, but critics are worried about the inclusion of rhino meat on the list. (DANIEL BORN)

A gunrunning network dubbed the Rhino Rifle Syndicate is behind a worldwide plot to equip Kruger National Park poachers with high-powered Czech-made rifles.

An investigation by the Conflict Awareness Project, an international organisation that investigates arms traffickers, has traced how the syndicate helped elevate small-scale rhino poaching to an industrial level.

This is revealed in a shocking report of a four-year investigation headed by Conflict Awareness Project director Kathi Lynn Austin. The report implicates the Mozambican ministry of the interior, and other state authorities there and in SA in rhino poaching.

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.