Trafficker with tiger, panther bodies caught at Vietnam border

Mar 11, 2010, 5:26 GMT

Hanoi - A man driving a pickup containing more than 2,000 kilograms of wild animal body parts, including a tiger and a black panther, has been arrested trying to enter Vietnam from Laos, border guards said Thursday.

Tran Xuan Thuy, commander of the Lao Bao border guard post in Vietnam's central province of Quang Tri, said the arrest took place on March 7.

Police identified the trafficker as Le Hong Hieu, 49, of the northern Vietnamese province of Nghe An. They said the arrest was the largest case of animal trafficking so far this year.

According to the news website VietnamNet, the truck contained the disemboweled bodies of a tiger and a black panther packed in ice. It also contained more than 1,000 kilograms of bones and horns belonging to bulls, buffalo and other animals.

The website said Hieu had confessed to receiving the animal parts from a man in the Laotian town of Sepon. He said he was driving them to the Vietnamese province of Quang Binh, which borders Quang Tri. There, they were to be delivered to another man, he said.

Illegal trafficking in tigers and other rare animals is widespread in Vietnam and China, where their bones and other body parts are often used in traditional medicine. A kilogram of pure tiger-bone paste can sell for up to 5,000 dollars on the black market.