How was the tiger trafficking ring from Laos to Vietnam eradicated?

(Baonghean.vn) - On January 16, Colonel Tran Huu Hong, Head of the Environmental Police Department (PC49) of Nghe An Provincial Police, said that the unit had just successfully dismantled Project 117H, discovering and seizing two frozen tigers weighing 300 kg and half a mountain goat in a freezer, transported from Laos to Vietnam and stored in a sophisticated way in a cow farm.

In the last days of 2016, Nghe An Police continuously dismantled many lines related to transnational wildlife trafficking crimes, but in the face of huge profits, this type of crime not only did not decrease but on the contrary, tended to increase. To combat and eradicate, Nghe An Police Department of Environmental Police decided to establish Project 117H.

Subject Kien at the police station.

After a short time of investigation, the Investigation Committee has built a portrait of the ringleader in this network. He is Nguyen Huu Hue (born in 1969), residing in Hamlet 3, Dien Doai Commune, Dien Chau District. Hiding behind the guise of being the owner of a livestock farm, with relationships gained over 10 years of building from Laos, Hue has many times transported individual tigers by road from Laos to Vietnam, then gathered them at the farm before finding a consumer.

The difficulty for the Task Force was that Hue's method was very sophisticated. After the "goods" were transported to the farm, Hue hid them in the freezer in the kitchen, only he had the key to access them. The main customers were regular customers, and the method of transaction was also set by Hue herself, so there were almost no specific rules.

However, with a strong determination to expose the true identity of this farm owner before the Lunar New Year, at about 2:00 p.m. on January 13, 2017, when it was determined that a large quantity of "goods" had just been imported from Nguyen Huu Hue's farm in Hamlet 6, Dien Doai Commune, the Task Force decided to "take the net".

At the time mentioned above, when the authorities raided, the owner Hue was not present, only the couple of workers, claiming to be his nephews, including Nguyen Van Kien (born in 1980) and his wife Ho Thi Nga (born in 1989), both residing in Hamlet 6, Dien Yen Commune, and a number of other workers.

Seized property.

By means of professional measures, searching the farm's kitchen area, the Investigation Team discovered inside the freezer a dead tiger weighing 146 kg, a tiger head weighing 60 kg, a part of the tiger's tail weighing 42 kg, a mountain goat (head and legs had been severed), weighing 43 kg and 14 kg of tiger meat. Here, after a while of denying, Nguyen Van Kien finally voluntarily handed over all the evidence to the authorities and admitted to his crime.

According to Kien's statement, he is Nguyen Huu Hue's brother-in-law, so Mr. Hue trusted him to work as a cattle caretaker since 2012. Since then, Kien, his wife and two children have lived and worked at Mr. Hue's farm and the couple received a salary of 5 million VND/month from Mr. Hue. A few days ago, one night, Kien saw two men driving a pickup truck with a Lao license plate come to the farm, carrying all the above-mentioned evidence to hide in the farm. Before they could sell it, they were discovered and arrested by the authorities.

Currently, the case is being continued and expanded by Nghe An Provincial Police./.

Ha Thu