The Devil Went Down in Tanzania

Boniface Matthew Mariango, a man allegedly responsible for the slaughter of thousands of elephants all over Africa, was arrested on Oct. 29, in Tanzania.

Jeff Corwin, a celebrity biologist, tweeted: “Tanzania’s most wanted elephant poacher, Boniface Matthew Mariango, AKA The Devil, arrested after year long manhunt!”
Mariango, nicknamed “the devil,” is accused of operating approximately 15 different smuggling rings in Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia. Non-government organizations, Elephant Action League and WildLeaks, collaborated on the year-long effort to bring in Mariango; his downfall was made possible thanks to a tip from an informant.

Elephant populations in the wild are still being decimated by poachers fueling the ivory trade; nearly 100 elephants per day are killed for their tusks. In Tanzania alone, the elephant population has dropped 60 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to a census.
“It was only in June that the true extent of elephant losses in Tanzania became apparent,” Richard Thomas, global communications coordinator for TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade-monitoring network, said in an interview with Takepart. “But a few months later there are encouraging signs that the authorities are beginning to hit back at those responsible for orchestrating the elephant poaching disaster.”

Unfortunately, only half the battle is won in the case of Mariango; many times arrested poachers are released on bail, never to be seen again, or face puny penalties that hardly slow them down.
“These cases need to be followed to their conclusion. Too often we see arrests but no convictions, or else laughable punishments given to poachers and traffickers,” said Kathleen Garrigan, media relations manager for the African Wildlife Foundation.

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