Crimes and Courts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HARARE \u2013 A Chinese national residing in Zimbabwe\u2019s capital has been handed an 18-year prison sentence after a Harare court found him guilty of illegally dealing in rhino horns and ivory, in a case highlighting the ongoing battle against wildlife trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cong Yanzhong, 57, was convicted on two counts of unlawful possession and trade in prohibited wildlife products following his arrest in July this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Harare Magistrates\u2019 Court heard that detectives, acting on a tip-off received on July 16, 2025, tracked and apprehended Cong after he was spotted carrying a satchel and a carrier bag matching a description provided by an informant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A search revealed three shrink-wrapped rhinoceros horns weighing 7.7kg, with an estimated street value of US$240,000. Subsequent searches at his residence led to the discovery of four pieces of raw ivory weighing 36.15kg, valued at over US$6,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe accused failed to produce any required permits or licences for the possession of these specimens, leading to his immediate arrest and detention,\u201d a court official stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sentence has been welcomed by conservationists. A representative from a local wildlife trust, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Zim GBC News, \u201cThis significant sentence sends a powerful message to poaching syndicates. The illegal wildlife trade remains a critical threat to our endangered species, particularly rhinos and elephants, and we commend the authorities for their work on this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a separate, unrelated case, a South African High Court in Johannesburg has sentenced seven Chinese nationals to an effective 20 years in prison for human trafficking and labour violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defendants, who ran a cotton sheet factory called Beautiful City in Village Deep, were convicted on 160 charges following a 2019 government inspection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court found that the majority of the factory’s staff were illegal immigrants from Malawi, some as young as 15, who were subjected to \u201chorrific\u201d and inhuman working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The seven individuals convicted are Kevin Tsao Shu-Uei, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying, and Zhang Zhilian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their convictions include human trafficking, bonded labour, and multiple breaches of South African labour laws. Their company was also fined R300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These cases underscore ongoing legal challenges involving foreign nationals in southern Africa related to organized crime and exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Zim GBC News | Global News From An African Perspective\u00a92025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crimes and Courts HARARE \u2013 A Chinese national residing in Zimbabwe\u2019s capital has been handed an 18-year prison sentence after a Harare court found him guilty of illegally dealing in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9061,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9059\/revisions\/9061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}