Hanoi (dpa) – A woman has been detained at Ho Chi Minh City’s airport carrying leopard skins, ivory, and other African wildlife products,
local media reported Monday.
The suspect, a 62-year-old Vietnamese national, was caught at Tan Son Nhat international airport’s customs on Sunday, with three leopard
skins, four kilograms of ivory and nine elephant tails, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
Authorities estimated that the total value of the goods, which had been smuggled in a flight from an undisclosed African country, was 88,000 dollars.
The trade in leopard parts and ivory is banned under the multilateral CITES treaty, as well as Vietnamese laws.
Wildlife products from Africa are routinely seized in Vietnam, which is one of the region’s largest hubs for trafficked products en route to the lucrative Chinese market.
Over the last month, animal parts worth over 440,000 dollars have been recovered at the airport, VNA said.
