A suspected smuggler living in an upmarket Pretoria suburb has been arrested for allegedly slaughtering lions and rhinos at his luxury home.
Police made the discovery on Tuesday after city officials received a tip-off that wild animals were being killed and chopped up at the man's Brooklyn home.
It is believed the man is living in the country illegally and is thought to have been found with fake residency documents.
Detectives from the SAPS crime intelligence gathering unit, along with members of the Tshwane Metro Police, the city's agriculture and environment management office and the Environment and Tourism Affairs Department's Green Scorpions, raided the home and recovered dozens of animal skulls, bones and teeth.
It is not known where the lions and rhinos came from.
The seizures come five months after Vietnamese diplomat Vu Moc Anh was sent home after she was found to be involved in the smuggling of rhino horn, allegedly from her country's embassy in Pretoria.
According to city officials, the man arrested on Tuesday is also believed to be Vietnamese.
Tshwane community safety department spokesperson Console Tleane said the city's Bylaw Enforcement Centre received a call from the SPCA that there might be illegal killing of animals at a residence in Nicholson Street.
In terms of bylaws regulating the keeping of animals, a person is guilty of an offence if he or she slaughters an animal in a residential area without the consent of the chief of police, the environmental health practitioner or any officer concerned with the prevention of cruelty to animals.
The only exceptions are if the slaughter is a ritual one or to provide meat for eating.
"When officers arrived at the house they found the bones hidden in containers in the house," Tleane said.
"It is a real horror story.
"Some of the bones were hidden in the bathroom in maize meal bags, others were hidden in bedrooms and other rooms.
"Apart from the bones, our officials, along with police and environmental agents, also recovered a substantial amount of foreign currency hidden both inside and under mattresses in the house," he said.
Tleane said it was believed the animals were killed for their skins, bones and horns, which are sold in the East where it is thought they help in curing medical and sexual conditions such as impotence.
He said an extensive investigation, which will involve numerous tests conducted by the Health Department and other government agencies, had been launched.
Apart from tests being conducted on the bones and other remains found at the house, officials are also fumigating and sanitising the building.
"This is done because of the fear that any contagious diseases, which the animals might have been carrying at the time of their death, such as feline TB, could spread," he said.
Tleane said the investigation would look into where the animals had come from, where they were killed before they were brought to the house, where the body parts were being smuggled to and for what purpose.
"What we do know is that the man was cutting up and skinning the animals both inside and outside his house," he said, adding that 13 lion heads had been found at the house.
Tleane said it was too early to say how many rhinos had been killed.
He said the man, who is being detained at Brooklyn police station, would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.