Fiona Macleod
Riccardo Ghiazza, the man at the centre of the Tuli elephant furore, is being investigated by police in connection with a huge illegal animal-smuggling network.
The endangered species protection unit (ESPU), a branch of the police service, is scrutinising Ghiazza’s alleged links with some of the kingpins of Southern Africa’s illegal wildlife trade.
One of his closest connections has already been prosecuted for illegal possession of animals, and others are under investigation. The Mail & Guardian has their names, but cannot divulge them because of the sensitivity of the ESPU investigation.
The smuggling network gathers mammals, reptiles, birds, marine life – “Anything that moves, they’ll sell it,” says one source – in various Southern African countries. Mozambique is particularly vulnerable to exploitation, because of its lax controls and easy access for the traders.
The animals are smuggled into South Africa, often with the assistance of corrupt conservation officials. They are kept in tiny crates or cages at hide-outs within striking distance of Gauteng, or are looked after by unsuspecting “foster mothers” who have no clue as to the true nature of the business they’re supporting.
Animals sold by Ghiazza are usually flown out of Johannesburg International airport, where a high-level official guarantees him special treatment. “When he is shipping animals out, he has the run of the airport. No one comes anywhere near his crates,” says a police source.
The Italian is the target of public fury after video footage showing his staff beating 14 young Tuli elephants still kept on his Brits property was shown on M-Net’s Carte Blanche programme on Sunday night.
It is almost a year since the Tuli elephant scandal erupted, when Ghiazza bought 30 young elephants that had been separated from their family groups in Botswana’s Tuli bushlands. While evidence that they are being abused has been the subject of drawn- out legal battles, 16 of the youngsters have been sold to various destinations.
In a confusing twist typical of the scandal, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) – which is chiefly responsible for exposing the abuse – was accused this week by the Rhino and Elephant Foundation of being an accessory to the abuse by not preventing it. The NSPCA has monitors on Ghiazza’s property to oversee the animals’ welfare.
“The monitors were instructed to intervene where possible, but not to place themselves in physical danger,” replies Rick Allan, manager of the NSPCA’s wildlife unit. Monitors allege they have been threatened and bullied by Ghiazza, his wife and his staff.
The ESPU is looking into reports that Ghiazza frequently threatens people who oppose him. The unit has asked Interpol to assist with investigations into an allegedly murky past that Ghiazza is fond of boasting about.
“He likes to threaten people, particularly when he’s drunk. They take him seriously because he claims he was part of a hit- squad in Italy but had to get out in a hurry when the politics changed,” says one of his drinking companions.
“He says he spent time in South America and Central Africa before coming here.”
Another boast involved the owner of trucks sent to Ghiazza’s property late last year to take the elephants away, at a time when there was confusion about who they belonged to by law.
“He gloats about how when the man arrived with his trucks, he said, in his Italian accent, `If you touch one of my elephants, you won’t live to see the morning’ – and the trucks were then turned back.”
Ghiazza (46) obtained permanent residence in South Africa in February 1990. His passport shows he was born in Acqui Terme, a small industrial area in northern Italy. He is married to Brenda Roth, a South African.
The ESPU is working with the United States Fisheries and Wildlife Department, which has been keeping tabs on Ghiazza since the early 1990s. The department has records of more than 670 animals he has exported to the US since 1993.
The list includes 418 reptiles sold to a smuggling outfit in Hollywood. Ghiazza also sold two elephants orphaned in a Kruger National Park cull to pop idol Michael Jackson in 1993.
The US department started investigating Ghiazza after receiving reports that he was shipping planeloads of animals to China and that hundreds of them died en route.
Legitimate South African traders say some US outfits are now insisting on written guarantees that they have no links to Ghiazza before they will deal with them.
Traders say South Africa is the world’s largest exporter of animals by ship and airfreight. They say Ghiazza had become South Africa’s biggest wildlife exporter shortly before the Tuli scandal broke.
It is impossible to put exact figures to the wildlife trade in South Africa because customs figures are unreliable and don’t reflect illegal trade.
“If you take the legitimate and illegitimate trade into account, South Africa is not the biggest wildlife exporter in Africa,” says an independent investigator. “Tanzania, for example, is exporting some 500 000 to 800 000 animals a year, while South African records show we’re exporting about 50 000 a year.
“But a more accurate reflection would be to look at the amounts of money involved: 100 000 birds sold from Tanzania would fetch about R100 000; one bird sold from South Africa fetches about R10 000.”
An example of the quick bucks Ghiazza makes from his deals is provided in a report compiled by the trade monitoring group Traffic. It records that he used to buy tortoises from zoos for R50 each, and then exported them with the price tag of R4 000 each.
Ghiazza was out of the country and not available for comment at the time of going to press.