Two more Vietnamese caught with rhino horns in South Africa
Last updated: 11/30/2010 14:00
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A rhino at Kruger National Park in South Africa |
Two suspects of Vietnamese origins have been arrested with 15 rhino horns in South Africa, VietNamNet said Tuesday.
Malcom Pojie, a police spokesman of South Africa, said the horns were discovered at a checkpoint, being transported in a bus bound for Cape Town.
The horns were wrapped in plastic bags and concealed in the two men’s luggage, Pojie said.
Police said one of the men ran from the vehicle but was caught soon afterward at a nearby hotel. They said the men were involved in a bigger trafficking operation.
In late June, a Vietnamese tourist named Xuan Hoang, 29, was sentenced to ten years in jail at a South African court for trafficking rhino horns.
Hoang was arrested in March at South Africa’s O.R. Tambo International Airport while attempting to smuggle seven rhino horns of 16 kilograms in total and worth nearly US$120,000 to Vietnam.
In 2006, the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa’s commercial attaché Nguyen Khanh Toan was also caught trafficking rhino horn.
In 2008, Vu Moc Anh, then the First Secretary of the embassy, was filmed selling rhino horns to a South African trafficker in front of the building in Pretoria.
The Vietnamese government has banned the trade of endangered wildlife, yet a report on November 14, 2008 in the online edition of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian said Vietnamese syndicates “have sought to monopolize the rhino horn trade in recent years.”
Many Vietnamese people believe that rhino horns have magical medicinal properties, able to treat fevers, rheumatism, and gout. East Asians also consider it a powerful aphrodisiac.
Recent studies by TRAFFIC showed that most South African rhino horns have been consumed in Vietnam and China.
The studies prompted a South African delegation to visit Vietnam October this year to discuss measures to stop the trafficking.
At least 268 rhino horns have been killed by poachers in South Africa this year, for their horns – more than twice the number poached in 2009.
Rhino horn sells for $2,000- $3,000 a kilogram in South Africa and $10,000 a kilogram when smuggled out of the country.
Source: Thanh Nien
