A Vietnamese man was sentenced to 15 months in jail in Singapore on Monday for smuggling rhino horn from Angola, the Strait Times reported. Nguyen Vinh Hai, 29, was transiting at Changi Airport last August when eight pieces of rhino horn weighing three kilos were found in his luggage, the report said. He was waiting to fly to Laos, which borders Vietnam. Customs officers, who acted on a tip-off, found the horn wrapped in translucent plastic and aluminum foil. The pieces were cut from three horns from at least two black rhinos, the indictment said. Animal conservationists say rhinos are being poached in Africa every day to meet demand, mostly from China and Vietnam. In 2014, a record 1,215 rhinos were poached in South Africa, said the country’s Environmental Ministry. Authorities in Vietnam seized more than 150kg of rhino horn in eight seizures in the first seven months of last year, the U.K. wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a report. Vietnam has strict laws that ban the sale and purchase of rhino horn, but they have failed to protect the critically endangered animal. Their horns are considered a status symbol and are used for decorations and in medicine. The country developed an appetite for rhino horn about a decade ago in the belief it could cure cancer, a myth conservation groups have bristled at. Vietnam’s last Javan rhino, a rare Southeast Asian species, was found dead in 2010 with its horn hacked off. Backed by the government, public… [Read full story]
A Ho Chi Minh City appeals court Friday handed down a three-year jail term to a Hanoian for smuggling rhinoceros horns from South Africa into Vietnam in 2008. According to the indictment, Tran Van Lap, 50, was found transporting five horns weighing 17,66 kilograms, without a license, at Tan Son Nhat Airport on January 3, 2008. He told police he had gone to South Africa, on someone's advice, to hunt rhinos in May, 2007. While there, he hunted down two white rhinos worth a total of US$20,000. When questioned, the man said he took two pairs of horns which were…... [read more]
Thai customs officers look at rhino horns allegedly smuggled in from Mozambique at a press conference at the International Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok on January 7, 2013. The pieces were seized from a Vietnamese man at the airport. Photo: AFP Police and customs officials in Hanoi Monday arrested a Vietnamese woman flying in from Bangkok and seized six kilograms of rhino horn from her. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tu, 29, was taken in at Noi Bai International Airport after scanners detected unusual items in her bag and customs officials decided to open it. Tu said a person in Bangkok had paid…... [read more]
Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested 33-year-old Ha Chan Chinh, a city resident, for illegally bringing six rhino horns from Mozambique to Vietnam. A stinking odor emitted by the horns, which weighed 16.26 kg and were hidden in his luggage, prompted police officers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport to examine Chinh's luggage when he arrived there on January 6. Chinh, who has a permanent residence in Go Vap District's Ward 16, had flown from Mozambique to Doha, Qatar Bangkok before arriving in Vietnam that day. Having no documents related to the horns, Chinh confessed to investigators that…... [read more]
Prosecutors in Ho Chi Minh City have ratified charges of smuggling against a man who was caught carrying two rhino horns worth a total of US$60,800 at a local airport in 2007. According to the indictment, Hoang Van Chung, 27, did not declare to customs the horns he was carrying when arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport on a flight from Hong Kong on June 25 that year. Chung later told police that he had bought the horns at a market in South Africa, where he worked as a shop assistant since October, 2005. He said the horns weighing 3.2 kilograms…... [read more]
Vietnamese police officers have just put three suspects in criminal detention after finding them smuggling wildlife earlier this week. Vietnamese police officers have just put three suspects in criminal detention after finding them smuggling wildlife earlier this week. The suspects in question are Nguyen Mau Chien, Nguyen Van Tung, and Nguyen Ngoc Dung, all hailing from the north-central province of Thanh Hoa. Chien, Tung and Dung were caught red-handed transporting more than 30kg of rhino horns at the Hanoi Gas Station on April 27. Police then searched Chien’s living place and discovered 3kg of rhino horn, two frozen tiger carcasses,…... [read more]
