Rhino poacher caught through DNA bank

Customs officials spotted the horn in the luggage of a passenger as he passed through Changi Airport, Singapore.

When they opened his luggage they found the horns of eight black rhino, weighing 22kg and valued at about R15-million.

Samples were extracted from the horns and sent to South Africa for DNA analysis. The results revealed just how efficient the poaching network had become. Six days before the seizure one of those horns was on a living rhino in the Kruger National Park.

Kobus de Wet, the chief environmental officer for crime investigations at SANParks, said that the index of thousands of rhino DNA profiles that had been compiled made it possible for the authorities to gain such information.

Read the full, original story: Rhino DNA busts poacher

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