Illegal mining pentalogy: Crime syndicates run wild (Part 5)
One of the country's main rhino-horn smuggling kingpins is an active illegal miner and known to mine security.
Illegal mining pentalogy: Zama zamas’ bodies dumped on road (Part 1)
Illegal Mining pentalogy: Town in clutches of criminals (Part 2)
Illegal mining pentalogy: Undercover agent reveals security horror (Part 3)
Illegal mining pentalogy: Children mine for illegal gold (Part 4)
BARBERTON – Louisville is seen as the safe haven from where crime syndicates plan and execute their criminal activities. These include illegal mining, dealing in drugs, unlawful weapons and trade in rhino horns.
The yellow Land Cruiser used to ferry zama zamas up the mountain to mine.According to reliable sources, syndicate members gather at strategic houses and shebeens in the town. Contraband is bartered and criminal activities planned.
“There you can easily buy an AK-47 assault rifle with bullets, rhino horn, drugs and refined gold, if you have the right contacts,” a source closely involved in intelligence gathering in the area, told Lowvelder.
A house of “an old woman” was also pointed out as the premises where the gold ore mined by the zamas zamas is refined for the black market.
A jeweller in Mbombela was named as one of the major buyers of the illegal gold.
A list of names of the known crime-syndicate bosses was given to the newspaper.
Among them is also one of the most notorious rhino-horn mobsters. More and more people move into the area on a regular basis to replace those arrested by the authorities and taken out of the trade.
Two prominent “new kids on the block” have been seen in Louisville with flashy new cars bought with cash from their takings in the illegal-gold trade.
