Both men are
Chinese nationals and were denied bail.
Lin Wang, also
known as William Kings, and Fuxi Wang, were not asked to plead when they
appeared before Harare magistrate Isheanesu Matova.
They were
remanded in custody and were advised to approach the High Court for bail
considerations as they are facing a third schedule offence.
The court heard
that last Thursday, Lin Wang claimed he wanted to export a sculpture from
Zimbabwe to China through Robert Gabriel International Airport.
He engaged a
clearing agent and the two met in Alexandra Park, where they agreed that Lin
would pay US$600 for the transaction.
He paid US$300
as deposit and they agreed to meet two days later to complete the transaction.
Detectives, who
were on surveillance in Alexandra Park along Fleetwood Road, saw Fuxi handing
over a white plastic parcel to Lin at the main gate of a house.
Lin collected
the parcel and drove away in a hired Nissan X-Trail.
The
surveillance team followed and they saw Lin inviting the agent into the car and
paying US$200 of the US$300 balance.
During the
transaction, the police pounced on them and introduced themselves.
Detective
Sergeant Kemusi recovered the white plastic bag which had a khaki cardboard box
concealing the rhino horns.
Lin was asked
to produce a permit allowing him to possess the rhino horns and he failed,
leading to his arrest.
The recovered
horns were worth US$120 000.
The court also
heard that on September 12 last year, Lin indicated that he wanted to export a
sculpture from Zimbabwe to China through Robert Gabriel International Airport
via Emirates Airways.
Lin met the
agent, Cuthbert Maoko, at Robert Gabriel International Airport Departures car
park and they proceeded to National Handling Services (NHS) Cargo handling
area.
He handed over
a 13 kg owl sculpture to the agent to facilitate its export to China and it was
placed in a cardboard box.
He left and the
agent proceeded to Aviation Ground Services to process export papers.
The sculpture
was physically examined by officials from ZIMRA, CID and AGS.
The sculpture
was put on AGS Scanner and the image and the officials became suspicious.
The sculpture
was held by ZIMRA.
When the
sculpture was broken, after two months, it was discovered that there were five
rhino horn pieces which were wrapped by a newspaper.
The agent implicated Lin. The agent called him to come at the airport to answer questions relating the case but he disappeared.
The five rhino
horn pieces were seized by ZIMRA and were worth US$360 000. H Metro
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