Hanoi - Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested a woman for smuggling tens of thousands of dollars' worth of dead wild animals and animal parts, a police official said Tuesday. Lieutenant Colonel Vu Hong Nam of the Ho Chi Minh City Police's Department for Orderly Economic Management and Posts said his department arrested Duong Thi Tu, 50, on Monday for violating regulations on the protection of precious and rare wild animals.
"The arrestee has not declared where she bought the wild animal parts, but according to our preliminary investigation, the supplies come from the north," Nam said.
Nam said on March 20, police raided Tu's souvenir shop and found several dead animals and animal parts.
According to a report Tuesday by the state-owned Vietnam News Agency, testing revealed the animals included eight dead lorises, two kilograms of tiger skins, 25 tiger claws, eight tiger fangs, 60 panther claws, 1 kilogram of panther skin, 1 kilogram of panther bones, 20 kilograms of elephant tusks, 2.7 kilograms of rhinoceros horn and parts of various other wild animals.
VNA reported Tu had begun trading wild animals in 2008, and that she had spent some 1 billion dong (56,000 dollars) buying animals and parts to date. It was not clear how much Tu had sold in total, but she reportedly sold her rhinoceros horn at 28 million dong (1,580 dollars) per 100 grams.
Nam said police had to wait for the results of the tests confirming that the animal parts belonged to protected species before arresting Tu.
Under Vietnamese law, if convicted Tu faces between two and seven years in prison and a fine of between 2 million and 20 million dong (120 to 1,200 dollars). She may also be barred from running her souvenir shop for one to five years.
