Arrested for storing and trading more than 70 rare animals

Accordingly, through reconnaissance work, the Environmental Police Department discovered that Vu Truong Thi (born in 1975), residing in Phu Vinh hamlet, Do Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, had many suspicious signs of criminal activities related to illegal storage and trading.endangered, rare animalsTherefore, the leaders of the Environmental Police Department have directed the deployment of forces to focus on monitoring.

After a period of synchronous implementation of professional measures, on December 12, 2022, the leaders of the Environmental Police Department determined that the opportunity was ripe and decided to crack down. At about 9:25 p.m. on December 12, 2022, at the Loi bridge area in Dien Hong commune, Dien Chau district, detectives from the Environmental Police Department discovered, controlled and caught Vu Truong Thi red-handed for illegally storing and trading in endangered and rare animals.

Subject Vu Truong Thi at the police station. Photo: Pham Thuy

At the scene, the authorities seized a container. Upon inspection, they discovered that the container contained 75 turtles (suspected to be big-headed turtles - a rare and endangered species in need of protection) with a total weight of nearly 50kg.

At the police station, Thi was evasive and refused to admit his guilt. Thi stated that he was “hired to transport” and did not know what was inside the cargo. In addition, in order to deceive the police, he reinforced the iron container to hide the turtles (suspected to be big-headed turtles) like a normal cargo container.

However, with the evidence and documents that the police had collected, after many hours of struggle, Vu Truong Thi finally had to bow his head and admit his crime. Thi confessed that the turtles (suspected to be big-headed turtles) were bought from subjects in Laos and were being transported to the northern mountainous districts to sell for profit when he was caught red-handed by the police.

Evidence of the case. Photo: Ho Hung

It is known that Vu Truong Thi had a criminal record related to the act of buying and selling wild animals. After being released from prison, this subject still "returned to his old ways", continuing to connect and buy and sell wild animals and rare animals in order to make a profit.

Currently, the Environmental Police Department is completing the dossier to handle the subject according to the provisions of law.