The Acting Provincial Head of the Hawks in the Western Cape, Brigadier Mushavhaduvha Ramovha welcomed the conviction and sentence handed down by the Parow Magistrate’s Court to three abalone poachers on Thursday, 20 January 2022.
Two Chinese nationals, Wu Jieyong (22), Ren Keng (27) and Zimbabwean national, Justice Jairo Moyo (27) all pleaded guilty on multiple charges of possession of illegal abalone.
They were consequently found guilty on all charges and were ordered to each pay R100 000 into the Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA) with an alternative three months imprisonment wholly suspended for five years with conditions.
Furthermore, all the abalone seized during the search and seizure operation that resulted to their arrest, was forfeited to the State. This comes after they were arrested in Parow East on 10 October 2021 during a search and seizure operation executed by a multi-disciplinary team.
The joint team comprised of the Western Cape Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team together with Crime Intelligence, K9 Overberg, Overberg Cluster and Cape Nature Overberg as well as officials from Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs (DFFE) from the Western Cape.
The team swiftly acted on information received about the premises that was used as an abalone processing facility which then culminated in the arrest of the trio.
They were sentenced to two years imprisonment wholly suspended for 5 years for selling, receiving or possession of illegal abalone.
A further three years imprisonment wholly suspended for five years for operating an illegal abalone processing Establishment. Two years imprisonment wholly suspended for 5 years for transport or possession of abalone not in a whole state. Another two years imprisonment wholly suspended for 5 years for selling, delivering or acquiring of abalone without a prescribed invoice.
