Authorities confiscate 1.2 tons of wild animals in central Vietnam en route to China
HANOI - Nearly 1.2 tons of smuggled wild animals were confiscated in central Vietnam while en route to China where they are eaten as delicacies and used in traditional medicines, an official said Wednesday.
After receiving a tip, police and forest control bureau officials in Lien Chieu District in Danang City on Tuesday discovered 2,550 pounds of live turtles and 65 pounds of pangolins and iguanas hidden in a truck, said Nguyen Van Rong, deputy head of the district forest control bureau. Rong said the truck driver told authorities he was hired by an anonymous trader in the southern province of Dong Nai to transport the animals to a northern Vietnamese province where they would be sold to neighboring China.
Authorities are considering fining the driver for illegally transporting the animals, depending on how rare they're considered in Vietnam.The animals were being kept by the forest control bureau and will be released back into the wild, Rong said, adding it was the biggest seizure of wild animals in the central city.
The Associated Press - March 17, 2004
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