“The receipt of this order made me realise he is just hellbent on killing as many rhinos as possible, for no other reason than harvesting the horn,” Smith said. Smith said he decided to expose the syndicate after discovering an order to Steyl for 50 more rhinos from Lemtongthai’s company, Xaysavang Trading Export-Import Company. With the average horn weighing 5kg, he had made more than R60-million in profit on the 40 rhinos shot to date. Smith said in the statement that Lemtongthai paid R65 000 a kilogram for the horns and sold them for $55 000 (R380 000) a kilogram. “I remember his actual words: ‘We shoot, we cut, we weigh, then pay.'” He felt he had paid too much for two rhinos shot in September or October last year - about R575 000 for one and R450 000 for the second - and told Smith that in future it would be done in a different way. Lemtongthai argued with some of the rhino traders about the prices they were charging upfront, saying he would prefer to pay after the horns had been weighed, Smith’s statement said. The person allegedly ‘hunting’ the rhino would never see the animal or its horn again.” Once in Asia, it obviously would enter the black market as rhino horn for ‘medicinal purposes’. “The trophy is just a cover for getting the horn out of South Africa and into Asia. “I believe he would also get a kickback for being so cooperative,” Smith’s statement said.Īfter the rhino was dehorned and the carcass chopped up for delivery to a butcher in Vryburg, where the meat was sold off in boerewors and burgers, the horn was taken to a taxidermist who mounted it on a shield to look like a hunting trophy.
#THE SYNDICATE PROJECT LION PROFESSIONAL#
“ would show them the rifle and even take the girls to a quiet spot where they could let off one or two shots so that they can later say that they have at least fired the weapon.”Īn official from North West Parks would be called out to witness the “hunt”, measure the horn, scan the microchip and put the details in the professional hunting register. Smith claims in the statement that “once the fingerprinting is done, the ladies are taken out to Steyl’s farm, where they are made comfortable and then introduced to the professional hunter. Their passports and fingerprints were needed to complete the necessary hunting permits and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species paperwork. They were provided by a Midrand, Gauteng, woman wanted in Thailand for human trafficking.
Usually friends were called in, or Thai women working as strippers and prostitutes were paid R5 000 to do the job. “Once the rhinos were established on Steyl’s farm he would call Lemtongthai and tell him how many animals were in place for a ‘hunt’ - Steyl had supplied three rhinos Lemtongthai would call Chunchom and tell him that he needed three ‘hunters’ and Chunchom would know that he needed to find three Thai nationals to hunt the rhinos,” Smith said in the statement.
Steyl is then alleged to have moved the rhinos to a farm in North West and soon after that they would be “hunted”, in contravention of regulations that the animals must be given time to acclimatise. Smith claims in his statement to the police that Marnus Steyl, a wildlife trader based in Brits, North West, bought the rhinos from auctions and private owners. He described how Lemtongthai and his sidekick, Punpitak Chunchom, paid millions of rands in cash for live rhinos. Almost a quarter of the 222 rhinos killed in South Africa this year have been “hunts” authorised by provincial conservation authorities.Ī statement made to the police by Tim Smith* who worked with the syndicate, led to the arrest of Lemtongthai and five Thai “hunters” in Edenvale on July 9. The evidence brings to light a growing trend among organised syndicates that are using hunting permits to export illegal rhino horns to the Far East. The syndicate is alleged to have traded at least 40 rhino horns and placed an “order” for 50 more to be supplied in the next few months. A statement to police that led to the arrest of the leader of an alleged Thai rhino poaching syndicate exposes the sleaze in the officially sanctioned shooting of this endangered species, with prostitutes used in “canned hunts”.Įvidence of the syndicate’s modus operandi emerged this week from a statement made to the police that led to the recent arrest of its leader, Chemlong Lemtongthai (43).
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