Swapping pangolins for... 'frozen meat' to fool authorities
(Baonghean.vn) - To deceive the authorities as well as the passenger van, Nguyen Thi Thuy (Ha Tinh) claimed that 2 snake carcasses containing 11 pangolins were "frozen meat" that needed to be sent to her family.
On September 24, the People's Court of Nghe An province brought defendant Nguyen Thi Thuy (born 1974), residing in Tay Son town, Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province, to trial for the crime of "Violating regulations on the protection of endangered and rare animals".
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| Defendant Nguyen Thi Thuy at the trial. Photo: An Quynh |
According to the indictment, at about 11:00 a.m. on March 30, 2019, Nguyen Thi Thuy was sitting in her house when she saw a Laotian couple passing by on a motorbike and asking: "Do you want to buy pangolins?" Because she had a customer who had placed an order before, after considering the matter, Ms. Thuy immediately agreed to buy 11 Java pangolins for 175 million VND.
After buying, Thuy immediately called Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cam (born in 1975), residing in Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city, a bus driver specializing in the Huong Son - Vinh city route, to ask him to transport the goods to a customer in Vinh to resell for 184 million VND.
Fearing that the long-distance transport would be discovered, after purchasing the pangolins, the defendant sealed them in bags and put bottles of ice in them to both cool and conceal the goods, and to make the bus owner think they were frozen meat.
When receiving the goods, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cam asked: "What is this?". Ms. Thuy only replied that this was frozen meat that needed to be delivered urgently to a customer in Vinh and then told him to call the address listed above when he arrived.
When Mr. Cam's car was stopped in Vinh city to deliver the two snake carcasses to a customer at the address Thuy requested, he was discovered and caught red-handed by the authorities.
Through appraisal, the number of seized exhibits includes: 11 Java pangolin individuals weighing 58.3 kg in Appendix 1 (List of endangered, rare species prioritized for protection), issued with Decree 160/2013 of the Government.
At the trial, the defendant confessed honestly and admitted that due to his low level of education, he did not understand the trade of prohibited animals. After considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel decided to sentence the defendant to 5 years in prison for the crime of "Violating regulations on the protection of endangered and rare animals". As for Mr. Nguyen Dinh Cam, because when he accepted to transport the goods, he did not know that they were rare animals, so the charge was not considered.
