Three jailed for trafficking tiger carcasses from Laos

By Hoang Phong   January 15, 2020 | 07:02 pm PT
A Hanoi court on Wednesday sentenced three men to five to six years in jail for trafficking tiger carcasses from Laos.
Seven tiger carcasses that police found in a car inside a parking garage in Hanoi, July 23, 2019. Photo courtesy of Hanoi police.

Seven tiger carcasses that police found in a car inside a parking garage in Hanoi, July 23, 2019. Photo courtesy of Hanoi police.

Nguyen Huu Hue, 52, identified as the kingpin of the gang, got six years while Phan Van Vui, 34, and Ho Anh Tu, 28, got five years each.

They were arrested in July last year after seven frozen carcasses were discovered in a car in the parking lot of a building on Xuan Thuy Street in the capital's Cau Giay District.

The indictment said Hue would go to Laos to buy tiger carcasses, freeze them and transport them to Vietnam. Each would weigh up to 300 kilograms.

He was the director of a local services and commerce company, and used his business as a front for trafficking and trading tigers and other endangered and rare animals for many years, and investigators said his underlings would always take the fall if his activities came to the notice of law enforcement.

Vietnam's conservation NGO Education for Nature-Vietnam said the imprisonment shows the Vietnamese government is earnest about tackling wildlife trafficking.

Tiger bones are used in Vietnam to make traditional medicines to treat bone- and joint-related ailments. The animals' meat, skin and claws are also used.

Vietnam is one of only 13 countries with tigers left in the wild. But populations are plunging though in 2010 the 13 countries pledged to double tiger numbers by 2022.

Tigers remain critically endangered in Vietnam, with only five left in the wild in 2016, down from 30 in 2011, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

 
 
go to top