Wild animal smugglers stopped in their tracks

Wild animal smugglers stopped in their tracks
Thanh Nien

A check stop in northern Vietnam uncovered a large cache of wild animal parts in a truck including 11 elephant tusks, while hundreds of kilograms of animals were seized in the south yesterday.

Traffic police in the northern province Thanh Hoa Saturday morning searched the truck carrying the elephant tusks, and found 22 tiger teeth, 6 bear galls and 4 tiger skulls.
The smuggler fled the scene, but the contraband was retrieved and brought to the provincial investigation agency.

On the same day, HCMC police seized a 108kg haul of iguanas, snakes, turtles, weasels, mouse deer, pangolin, monkeys, and wild boars in the city’s Thu Duc district.

According to the initial investigation, Nguyen Tri Dung and Dao Van Lang, aged 26 and 19, respectively, confessed that a large part of the wild goods belonged to Nguyen Minh Tiem in neighboring Binh Phuoc province.

HCMC authorities last month also swooped down on a slaughterhouse in Thu Duc District and seized hundreds of kilograms of wild animals allegedly destined for city-based restaurants.

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