Zimbabwean police say they arrested six men accused of killing 41 elephants with cyanide.
State media reported Friday that police official Muyambirwa Muzzah said rangers followed the tracks in the southwestern Hwange National Park that led to several elephant carcasses.
Muzzah said a cache of tusks, worth $120,000 on the illegal ivory market, and other remains were found near water holes that had been laced with cyanide. He said the six were arrested when they returned to collect the ivory and they are suspected of operating from the western city of Bulawayo.
The police official said hundreds of wild animals feeding on the dead elephants could also die from poisoning.
The Bulawayo Chronicle newspaper reported Friday that poachers arrested in May for poisoning wildlife were jailed for two years.