Indonesia arrests man for selling rhino horn via social media

Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) translocation team members drill the horn of a black female rhinoceros in order to equip the animal with a radio transmitter, as it is one of three individuals about to be translocated, in Nairobi National Park, on June 26, 2018. Kenya Wildlife Services proceeded to relocate some rhinoceroses on June 26, 2018 from Nairobi National Park to Tsavo-East National Park in an effort to re-populate habitat around the country. Rhinoceros population had been decimated by poaching and harsh climatic changes. (File photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)

Indonesian authorities arrested a man trying to sell elephant tusks and the horns of critically endangered rhinos via social media.

The illegal wildlife trade remains rampant in Indonesia, where law enforcement is lax, but the arrested man could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, the environmental ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

South Sumatra police began an investigation after seeing posts on Facebook earlier this year offering parts of protected wildlife for sale.

A 60-year-old man, identified only by the initials “ZA,” was arrested last week during a transaction while trying to sell a rhino horn and a pipe made of an elephant tusk in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Police found seven more rhino horns and at least four elephant tusks at his house.

“It seems like he’s very experienced in wildlife trading,” the environmental ministry said.

In June, police arrested a gang of poachers suspected of killing 26 critically endangered Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon National Park since 2018.

They once numbered in the thousands across Southeast Asia, but have been hard hit by rampant poaching and human encroachment on their habitat, and the environment ministry says there are only around 80 of the beasts left in the wild.

Sumatran rhinos have also been declared critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN with fewer than 50 remaining.