50 pieces of horn suspected to be elephant tusks and rhino horns seized

Authorities discovered 49 pieces of animal horn, suspected to be elephant tusks, weighing 95.54 kg, and 1 horn suspected to be rhinoceros horn, weighing 4.76 kg, inside the luggage.

The anti-smuggling force of Hanoi Customs and the Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch said they had seized a large quantity of suspected ivory and rhino horn and sent it to the authorities for inspection.

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Previously, on August 12, the anti-smuggling force of Hanoi Customs, the Noi Bai International Airport Customs Branch and the Northern Anti-smuggling Control Team (Team 1), the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department of the General Department of Customs, the Anti-smuggling Crime Prevention Police Department under the General Department of Police, conducted a search of 4 suspicious pieces of luggage transported on an international flight to Hanoi on a schedule from Africa via South Korea to Vietnam.

Authorities discovered inside these pieces of luggage 49 pieces of animal horn, suspected to be elephant tusks, with a total weight of 95.54 kg and 1 horn suspected to be rhino horn, weighing 4.76 kg.

Authorities determined that the luggage tags of the four packages bore the names of two subjects, Pham Van Luat and Vu Thanh Hung. On the morning of August 13, the authorities sent samples of these exhibits to the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, for appraisal.

If the above horns are indeed ivory and rhino horn, this is the largest illegal shipment from abroad to Hanoi. Previously, on April 16, Noi Bai Customs discovered and seized 65.42 kg of ivory and rhino horn by air from France to Noi Bai, Hanoi.

An anti-smuggling officer said that rhino horn and ivory are identified as prohibited import goods, on the list of wild animals and plants under the management of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

The "black market" price can be up to 133 USD for each gram of rhino horn. And ivory, especially African ivory, can be around 2100 USD/kg. Thus, the above 4 packages, if successfully transported through the customs gate and sold on the "black" market, would be worth up to tens of billions of VND.

The incident is under further investigation.

According to Infonet