A number of threatened wild mammals illegally transported in a vessel have been seized in the southernmost Vietnamese province of Ca Mau by a local guard unit, the Vietnam News Agency quoted the provincial Forest Protection Department as saying on Tuesday.

The Border Defense Force in Dat Mui Commune, Ngoc Hien District, Ca Mau, impounded 114 pangolins in nylon bags which were alive at the moment, each weighing three to ten kilograms.

Additionally, the body found 301 kilograms of pangolin scales stashed in styrofoam boxes.

Pangolins in Vietnam are highly vulnerable to extinction, according to Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, a not-for-profit acting for wildlife’s sake.

Trading this species has still existed in the country, not least because of its assumed medicinal properties.

The confiscation occurred at night on January 20, after the unit performed its check on the unlicensed ship owned by Hai Dang Limited Liability Company and steered by Nguyen Van Hau, a 37-year-old native resident, when it was navigating to the mouth of an inland waterway in Ca Mau.

All the crew members admitted that they had brought aboard the animals and scales from a man named Bay Rau, the captain of a ship that anchored at Hon Khoai Island of the province, in order to send them to the company’s director, according to the defense force’s report.

The document also says that Hau has been repeatedly hired to transport wild animals to the waterway.

The pangolins’ origin is under investigation by authorities.

The other latest seizure of a similar number of pangolins was noted in early 2017.

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