Tom Burke police in Lep­ha­lale, Limpopo have on Fri­day arrest­ed a for­eign nation­al in pos­ses­sion a pan­golin .

Limpopo Provin­cial Police spokesman Brigadier, Mot­lafela Mojape­lo con­firmed  the sus­pect aged 35, will appear in the Pha­lala Mag­is­trates ‘Court on Mon­day, charged with pos­ses­sion of endan­gered species.

“Police received infor­ma­tion regard­ing a man sell­ing  live pan­golin in the Swart­wa­ter area. Mem­bers of the Endan­gered Species’ police unit  were  acti­vat­ed, and after trac­ing the infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed, they suc­cess­ful­ly arrest­ed the sus­pect and con­fis­cat­ed the pan­golin,” said Brigadier Mojape­lo.

Mean­while, Emmanuel Mlam­po (28) found sell­ing a pan­golin in  Mokopane Cen­tral Busi­ness Dis­trict on Feb­ru­ary 12  had on Thurs­day plead­ed guilty to a charge and was sen­tenced to six years in prison with­out an option of a  fine.

The case against his co-accused, Ronald Nelushi (41), was trans­ferred to Mah­wel­ereng Dis­trict Court for tri­al.

Limpopo Provin­cial Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er Major Gen­er­al Jan Scheep­ers praised the work of the Endan­gered Species’ police unit.

Major Gen­er­al Scheep­ers said: “We also thank mem­bers of the  com­mu­ni­ty for pro­vid­ing valu­able infor­ma­tion to ensure that the cul­prits are con­vict­ed.”