Hanoi - Police in Vietnam arrested two men after finding them in a taxi with the frozen, disemboweled carcasses of a tiger and a bear, an official said Monday. Nguyen Dinh Nam, 33, and Uong Ba Quyen, 44, were arrested Friday in Ho Chi Minh City while transporting the gutted animals to a restaurant, said Nguyen Dinh Cuong, director of the city's Forest Protection Department.
The suspects confessed to the police that they had bought the tiger for 56 million Vietnamese dong (about 3,500 dollars), and the bear for six million dong (375 dollars), near the border between Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province and Laos.
"I believe that they are part of a larger wild animal trafficking ring," Cuong said. He said the police were investigating which restaurant the animals had been destined for, and looking for other suspects.
Cuong said the problem of animal trafficking was becoming increasingly serious.
Forest rangers in Vietnam seized more than 6,000 trafficked wild animals in the first 10 months of 2007, including 856 specimens of rare species, according to the national porest protection department.
Tiger bones and other tiger parts are often used in traditional Vietnamese medicine. "Tiger paste" made from boiled tiger bones, which is said to heal the bones of the elderly, can sell for as much as 5,000 dollars a kilogram on the black market.
In August, a Vietnamese court sentenced eight men to up to 11 years in prison for poisoning a tiger in a zoo and stealing the carcass to sell on the black market.
According to Vietnamese law, people hunting, transporting or trading in rare animals are subject to a prison term of up to seven years and a cash fine of up to 20 million dong (1,250 dollars).
