Ten men arrested in connection with ivory poaching

TEN men have been arrested in the Zimbabwean capital for poaching ivory and rhino, a police spokesman said yesterday.

Four are former soldiers, confirming suspicions that well-connected military syndicates are at the heart of the onslaught against Zimbabwe's once-thriving big game sector.

Detectives picked up the men in a plush shopping mall in northern Harare where they approached Chinese businessmen in a bid to sell two rhino horn.

The horn was found stashed in a sports bag in the boot of a Mercedes Benz, and valued at about 75,000. The rhino was poached in Chiredzi, southern Zimbabwe - the men have been under surveillance since April. Four elephant tusks were seized in a separate raid on the mall.

Zimbabwe's elephant and rhino populations have come under increasing threat in the last decade as groups loyal to president Robert Mugabe have overrun farms and conservation sites under the guise of land redistribution. More than ten rhino have been killed this year alone, according to local wildlife authorities.

Chinese companies prospecting for uranium in remote northern Zimbabwe are also deliberately poisoning elephants in the area, a local conservation group alleged last week.