Enclosures for the confiscated animals. (Photos: Supplied) 
Collaboration between CapeNature, the police’s Kuils River Stock Theft Unit, the Environment Department and the US Fish and Wildlife Service culminated in a raid at a house in the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville where cages of extremely dangerous snakes, spiders and birds were found.
Most of the creatures were species prohibited in private captivity in the Western Cape. Three were adult Mangshan pit vipers – a critically endangered species that occurs in only a small forested, mountainous area in southern China. According to the most recent conservation assessment there are fewer than 500 adults left in the wild.
Nicholas Aitchison was sentenced in the Bellville Regional Court to six years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay R100,000 after being convicted on 16 charges relating to the illegal trafficking and possession of 56 protected species.
The jail term was suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of contravening any national or provincial environmental laws relating to the acquisition, disposal, trade, import, export, transport, possession, keeping in captivity or capture of wild animals, or for defeating or obstructing the course of justice for the next five years.
One of the indigenous baboon spiders seized. (Photo: CapeNature)
According to Luke Folb of CapeNature, Aitchison was known to have links with international reptile smuggler Daniel Lohde, a German previously convicted for reptile smuggling in Upington, Northern Cape. He was also arrested and charged in a separate reptile smuggling case in Kempton Park, Gauteng.
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Further links were confirmed between Aitchison and a German named Maciej Oskroba, another international smuggler who was deported from Costa Rica in 2015 for attempting to smuggle more than 400 frogs and reptiles out of Central America to Europe.
International analysis gathered during an ongoing broader investigation suggests that Aitchison’s trafficking involvement with Lohde and Oskroba goes back at least five years.
Most of the creatures were species prohibited in private captivity in the Western Cape. (Photo: Supplied)
The confiscated animals are protected species. (Photo: Supplied)
Enclosures for the confiscated animals. (Photo: Supplied)
The illegal harvesting and trafficking of Mangshan pit vipers for the illegal exotic pet market and specialist hobbyists and collectors poses an extreme risk that could push this species into extinction. China has never authorised their legal export.
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“We are satisfied with the successful conviction on all 16 charges and the sentence imposed,” said CapeNature CEO Dr Ashley Naidoo. “It should serve as a deterrent for people that involve themselves in wildlife crime in the Western Cape.
“It’s an example of the enforcement and prosecution success that can be obtained through provincial, national and international collaboration across environmental law enforcement, criminal justice and private sector role players.”
CapeNature is working with the Environment Department, the Mangshan National Nature Reserve and the Chinese government to return the three vipers to China where they may be used in a conservation breeding programme. DM