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The Da Nang Metropolis police have arrested a person working shell firms to allegedly smuggle wild animal elements from Africa to Vietnam.
Nguyen Duc Tai, 33, is beneath investigation for “violating rules on administration and safety of endangered, treasured and uncommon animals.”
The Police Division for Corruption, Smuggling and Economics Crimes made the arrest on Wednesday after monitoring his actions for over a yr.
Nguyen Duc Tai, a local in central Vietnam, is beneath arrest for allegedly working a wildlife trafficking ring, June 2022. Photograph by police |
Early final yr they’d positioned a number of suspects beneath surveillance after discovering they’d used faux ID playing cards to arrange firms.
The businesses are all registered to import and export items however the police couldn’t determine their headquarters or see them undertake every other exercise besides importing items from Africa.
In July final yr the financial police division checked a consignment declared as containing picket flooring imported from South Africa by one of many firms arrange by the group, and located inside 52 rhino horns weighing greater than 138 kilograms and lion bones weighing 3.1 tons.
In January authorities inspected a container imported from Nigeria purportedly with cashew nuts and located 456 kg of ivory and 6.23 tons of pangolin scales.
An investigation into the businesses by the police recognized Tai because the chief of the ring.
A search of his residence turned up a bag of pangolin scales he had saved as a pattern to indicate consumers.
The rhino horns seized by the police at Tien Sa Port in Da Nang Metropolis from a wildlife trafficking ring allegedly run by Nguyen Duc Tai in July 2021. Photograph by police |
The police stated it was one of many largest transnational wildlife trafficking circumstances ever busted.
Vietnam is a serious hub for the unlawful commerce of wildlife and animal elements.
In lots of circumstances, after being imported into Vietnam, the products are offered to China, Laos and Cambodia at costs of round $100,000 for a kilogram of rhino horns, $3,000 for ivory and $300 for pangolin scales.
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