Vietnam frees two live tigers in raid on trafficking ring

Jan 9, 2008, 7:44 GMT

Hanoi - Vietnamese authorities freed two live tigers from a car in Hanoi and later found 12 live bears in a raid on a suspected major wildlife trafficking ring, an official said Wednesday.

Authorities had been tracking the suspected trafficking operation for at least two months, and arrested six people in the raid on Monday night, according to local media.

The two live tigers and the bears have been transferred to the Hanoi Wildlife Rescue Centre, according to Nguyen Van Nhung, an official at the center.

'The tigers are in stable condition now. We haven't yet decided what to do with them,' Nhung said Wednesday.

Police had been monitoring the headquarters of suspected trafficking ring and on Monday night officers saw a car approach the house and people carrying two large bags out of the vehicle, according to Lao Dong newspaper.

The officers stopped the cars and found the two tigers - each weighing about 100 kilograms - alive, but drugged, Nhung confirmed.

Police then raided the home and found the frozen carcasses of four more tigers, 10 bear paws, two elephant tusks, a rhinoceros horn and about 16 kilograms of animal bone ground into a paste, Lao Dong reported.

Officers also seized a shotgun and two kilns used for making paste out of animal bones, used in many traditional medicines.

Police arrested suspected ringleaders Nguyen Quoc Truong and Nguyen Thi Mui. Truong confessed that he had bought the tigers from Nguyen Thi Mui for 320 million dong (20,000 dollars), Lao Dong reported.

Four suspected accomplices were also arrested.

'Tiger paste' made from boiled tiger bones is believed by many Vietnamese to heal the bones of the elderly and can sell for as much as 5,000 dollars a kilogram on the black market.

Only a few hundred wild tigers remain in Vietnam's forests.

Trading in endangered species is subject to a prison term of up to seven years and a cash fine of up to 20 million dong (1,250 dollars) under Vietnamese law.