Vietnam man tries to get rare species through airport

A man was detained at the Ho Chi Minh City airport while trying to check 11 cardboard boxes containing 33 live pangolins on a flight to Hanoi, police said Monday.

Nguyen Van Hoang Hai, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Police, said the pangolins had been discovered Saturday evening by x-ray scanners at the entrance to the airport's departure area.

Hai said police had detained Nguyen Viet Hung, 36, who had no papers authorising him to transport the animals. The pangolins were hidden in each box under a layer of live common turtles.

The pangolins, a protected species under Vietnamese law, were sent to a wild animal rescue centre in Ho Chi Minh City.

"The veterinarians said the pangolins were stressed and a bit weak, due to being kept for a long time, but they are okay now," Hai said.

According to police, Hung said he was hired by a neighbour to transport the pangolins to China. The neighbour had bought the pangolins in Cambodia for 45 dollars a kilogram.

Hung had planned to check the cardboard boxes containing the pangolins and turtles on a Jetstar Pacific Airlines flight to Hanoi.

Hai said each pangolin weighed about 5 kilograms, and could be sold for over 100 dollars per kilogram.

Consumption of wild animals in homes and restaurants is widespread in China and Vietnam, where they are considered a delicacy, despite laws granting many animals protected status. The animals are often associated with health benefits in traditional medicinal beliefs.