South African men sentenced in ‘world’s largest’ rhino-horn trafficking case

Two traffickers of rhino horns have been sentenced by a South African court in what police said was the world’s largest such case, partly bringing to an end an almost two-decade legal saga. Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus had faced more than 1,700 charges ranging from illegally hunting and dehorning rhinos to racketeering and money laundering. Groenewald, described by South African police as the mastermind of the enterprise, was handed a 2m rand (£92,000) fine or four years’ imprisonment after reaching a plea deal with the state. His co-accused was fined 100,000 rand or three years in prison, said the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks unit. South Africa has about a third of the world’s critically endangered black rhino population, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF). It also has more than 75% of all southern white rhinos, whose global population dropped 10% to fewer than 16,000 in 2024. The country is plagued by rhino horn poaching, accounting for 81% of poaching cases in Africa in 2024, according to the IRF. Rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine but has no health benefits for humans. While up-to-date estimates are hard to come by, a 2022 research paper suggests it can fetch tens of thousands of dollars a tonne on the black market. Groenewald and his brother Janneman were accused by the US justice department in 2014 of selling illegal rhino-hunting trips to Americans under false pretences. …