Nearly 3.8 tons of pangolin scales smuggled from Congo into Vietnam
Nearly 3.8 tons of pangolin scales were cleverly hidden in two wooden containers arriving at Cat Lai port in Ho Chi Minh City and were searched and discovered by authorities on April 27.
The Saigon Port Customs Branch, Region 1, in coordination with the Customs Control Team, the Anti-smuggling Investigation Department, PC46 and the Border Guard, carried out the arrest.
This is the largest case of pangolin scale smuggling ever discovered, with a market value of tens of billions of dong, at the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department.
Pangolin scales are on the list of prohibited goods for trade because pangolins are a species at high risk of extinction.
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| Customs forces are counting the number of pangolin scales. Photo: N.Binh |
Present at the scene, Mr. Dinh Ngoc Thang, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, said that through collecting information and coordinating with African customs forces, the customs agency checked and discovered two containers imported from Congo, transited through a port in Singapore, expected to arrive at Cat Lai port on April 22, with many suspicions.
The recipient of this shipment is Thien Phuoc Duc Company Limited in Binh Phuoc province, declaring the goods as wood.
Therefore, at 4:00 a.m. on April 22, as soon as the shipment arrived at the port, customs officers discovered through screening that the front and back of the container were made of wood, but there were signs of abnormalities in the middle.
From this suspicion, the customs arranged for someone to monitor the shipment, waiting for the business to complete the procedures. However, the receiving business did not show up.
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| The pangolin scales in the shipment were assessed by the inspection agency as large scales. Photo: N.Binh |
On the morning of April 27, during a search, authorities discovered 107 bags of suspected pangolin scales, estimated to weigh nearly 3.8 tons, cleverly hidden by placing them in the middle of the container and using wooden blocks to cover the area to avoid detection.
Even with the naked eye, it is possible to see that the pangolin scales were taken from thousands of animals of at least three different species.
Mr. Dinh Ngoc Thang said that after completing the necessary procedures and having sufficient grounds, the authorities will initiate prosecution of the case.
