Breaking! 2 More Rangers Arrested For Alleged Rhino Poaching In Kruger National Park; Marks 18 Arrests This Month Alone

The latest in what is becoming an epidemic in a country already besieged with crises, has resulted in two Skukuza-based Kruger National Park (KNP) field rangers arrested for involvement in alleged poaching.

South African National Parks (SANParks) confirmed in a statement today that the yet-to-be-named park employees were apprehended on Tuesday of this week after Kruger National Park (KNP) Rangers conducted an anti-poaching operation south of the Park.

During the arrest, South African Police Service (SAPS) recovered a heavy caliber firearm, ammunition, and poaching related equipment. Both suspects were taken into custody at the Skukuza Police Station and will appear in Court in due course.

These arrests follow closely on a number of successful operations carried out by Rangers and supported by SAPS in the past eleven days.

As previously reported by WAN, on February 15th, four suspected poachers, including a SANParks official, were also arrested with a firearm and two rhino horns during the operation.

12 more suspected poachers were subsequently arrested and four more firearms were recovered, along with ammunition and poaching related equipment in various operations south of the park. This brings the total number of arrests to 18, sadly including KNP employees.

The Managing Executive of KNP, Glenn Phillips, shared praise for all those who were involved in the arrests and reiterated his warning that the organization will not tolerate illegal activities in Kruger National Park, especially from its own staff.

“It is immensely disheartening for the Rangers and other law enforcement officials when they have to arrest their own colleagues,” said Phillips. “We are appealing to our colleagues to stop embarrassing the organization, their colleagues, friends, and family. We want them to know that we are on the heels of these criminals masquerading as Rangers, and it is time to come clean and help us uproot those criminal elements in our Ranger Corps.”