Zimbabwean police have launched an investigation into Grace Mugabe over allegations that she headed a poaching and smuggling syndicate that illegally exported tons of elephant tusks, gold and diamonds from the country.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa sanctioned an "urgent" investigation into Mugabe's activities after "very strong" evidence was uncovered by Adrian Steirn, an Australian photojournalist.
The former first lady was named as the mastermind of the illegal operation by two suspected poachers who were later arrested in a police sting after trying to sell tusks to Steirn.
She has not yet been charged.
Steirn posed as a customer for contraband ivory to infiltrate the smuggling and poaching networks.In an interview he said he decided to launch the investigation after hearing rumours about Mugabe's complicity in trade during several years reporting on wildlife crime in Africa.
"If they charge and arrest her, and she goes to jail for wildlife crimes, that will change the dynamic of the entire perception of wildlife trafficking across Africa," said Steirn.
'Her goods were not searched'
Undercover footage shows several people, including suspected poachers and intelligence, wildlife and aviation officials, describing how Mugabe smuggled ivory - poached in national parks or looted from government warehouses - out of the country by exploiting an exemption from airport security screening as first lady.
They include Fariken Madzinga, a registered dealer of ivory who describes in the footage how he also runs a syndicate that handles both poached ivory and tusks stolen from the government's secure stockpiles of wildlife products on behalf of Mugabe.
In conversations with Steirn recorded before his arrest, Madzinga described how he relied on "the president and first lady" to get contraband tusks out of the country. "In order for it to pass through customs, the goods of the first lady were not searched. She had immunity from the government."
Madzinga and Tafadzwa Pamire are due to appear in court on April 9 charged with illegal possession of raw tusks.
Steirn, who will be the main state witness in the trial, said he had received death threats and warnings not to testify.Christopher Mutsvangwa, a war veterans leader and long-standing Zanu-PF critic of Mugabe, said: "The government of Zimbabwe will seek answers from all parties who have been implicated in this matter, including former first lady Grace Mugabe and former minister of environment Saviour Kasukuwere."
Mutsvangwa said there was currently no suggestion that former president Robert Mugabe was implicated in the smuggling ring.
However, he added that there was mounting evidence that the gang included high-ranking members of Mugabe's security apparatus and that the systemic smuggling also involved rhino horn, diamonds and gold. "Ivory is just one part of it," he said.
In his last five years in office, Robert Mugabe regularly travelled for medical treatment to Singapore using Air Zimbabwe's only long-haul aircraft, a Boeing 767. He was often accompanied by his wife. He last visited the city-state in December, a month after he left office.
On the same day he flew out of Harare, on December 11, a consignment of 200kg of ivory destined for Kuala Lumpur was seized at Harare's Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
While Mugabe's alleged customers have not been named, Mutsvangwa said the buyers were assumed to be organised criminal groups operating out of China and Malaysia. Such gangs have been linked to multimillion-dollar poaching operations across Africa and have a reputation for extreme violence.
Official corruption fuelled poaching
In August Wayne Lotter, a South African conservationist investigating ivory smuggling networks, was shot dead in Tanzania.
And last month Esmond Bradley Martin, an American, and one of the world's leading experts on the illegal wildlife trade, was stabbed to death at his home in Nairobi.
The exposure of top Zimbabwean officials in the illegal wildlife trade will come as little surprise to conservationists, who say official corruption, including co-operating with major organised crime networks, has fuelled poaching.
"Corruption is key all along the supply chain," said Lucy Vigne, a leading researcher into the smuggling of illegal ivory and rhino horn from Africa. "Officials may turn a blind eye for bribes or collude with the criminal traders in illegal wildlife trade activities themselves."Frank Pope, CEO of the Save the Elephants charity, said: "There has been a concerted international effort to bring down the high-level trafficking networks of which Grace is an example.
"She is not alone in being a senior figure in this kind of stuff, not alone in this current crisis and not alone in the historical perspective of the ivory trade. There have been other senior figures who've lined their pockets substantially from the ivory trade."
Mugabe did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Father Fidelis Mukonori, who is close to the Mugabe family, said he discussed the allegations with Mugabe and she said she was "unconcerned. She said it doesn't matter."
Mugabe grew notorious for her profligate spending during her nearly 20 years as first lady of Zimbabwe, despite having no obvious commensurate source of income.
She is said to have spent an estimated R165-million on a clutch of luxury properties in Zimbabwe and South Africa between 2014 and 2017. She has not explained how she funded the purchases. Her husband's salary as president was about $20000 a month.
The Mugabes still live at the Blue Roof, the Harare residence they built while he was president...