Notorious Tanzanian ivory trafficker jailed

By Peter Saramba Ongiri

MWANZA, Tanzania (AA) - The most notorious Tanzanian poacher, Boniface Mathew Maliango nicknamed ‘The Devil’ has been sent to twelve years imprisonment for running an ivory trafficking network across the East and Central African countries.

The 47-years old poacher was convicted at the Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s business capital court after being arrested in September 2015 following a year-long manhunt from Tanzanian security organs.

He is believed to be the leader of a poaching network supplying a 66-years-old Chinese Yang Fenglan, famously known as ‘Ivory Queen’ and who is currently on trial for illegally killing 350 jumbos, trading and trafficking of 706 elephant tusks worth US$2.7 million between 2, 000 to 2014.

This is the result of a significant fight against poaching from a Special Wildlife Trafficking Unit under the National and Transnational Serious Crime Investigation Unit to end the declining number of elephants and rhinos.

The country’s 2014 elephant census shows their number has dropped from over 150,000 in 2004 to only 55,000.

China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and the Koreas represent the leading markets for ivory and rhino horns.