Six suspected poachers apprehended in Plett

Update

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Suspected abalone poachers met their match last week thanks to vigilant Plettenberg crime fighters and residents.

Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association (PBCPA) operations head Otto Olivier said they responded to an alert received last Thursday morning, 3 March. The information pointed to suspected abalone poachers diving near Forest Hall on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay.

"The alleged poachers realised they had been spotted and decided to stay adrift in the water. After a while they started swimming towards Nature's Valley in an attempt to avoid being arrested," Olivier said.

Nature's Valley neighbourhood watch group members took up lookout positions along all known escape routes while other crime fighters searched the dense bush in the area.

Thanks to this action, a 35-year-old man from Kleinmond in the Overberg area was arrested for possession of abalone.

According to Southern Cape police spokesperson Sgt Chris Spies, he had 29 units of abalone in his possession.

Take five

Olivier said at first it seemed that the remaining poachers would get away, but after a few hours, "the poachers were spotted by vigilant and persistent Nature's Valley neighbourhood watch group members who had kept on looking out for the perpetrators".

PBCPA members and municipal law enforcement officers responded and five more suspected poachers were apprehended. However, as there was not enough evidence to warrant prosecution, the five were later released.

According to Spies, rural flying squad officers who had been conducting patrols along the national road in Plettenberg Bay, also responded after being alerted to the incident.

"They operationalised the information and tactically responded to the area with rangers from the South African National Parks," he said.

Western Cape police management commended those involved with the arrest and said such interventions will continue to bring the unlawful harvesting as well as trafficking of the valuable living marine resources along the coast to a halt.

Police confiscated 29 units of abalone.