Police in Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam on Tuesday said that they had detained one man and two women for investigation regarding the storing and trading of endangered and rare animals purchased from Laos.

The three individuals, namely Duong Thi Phuong, 49, Nguyen Van Hien, 45, and Dinh Thi Kieu, 46, all reside in Ha Tinh’s Huong Khe District.

According to the investigation, officers caught Phuong red-handed selling a 65kg sun bear on December 25.

Following the arrest of Phuong, police conducted an urgent search and apprehended Hien, who had previously purchased the sun bear in Laos for VND60 million (US$2,466) and transported it into Vietnam as frozen goods in sealed bags.

Hien had just received the goods from a bus and transported them to Phuong’s house earlier on the morning of December 25. 

Phuong was apprehended while reselling the sun bear to a third customer.

Expanding their probe, police urgently searched Kieu’s house, where they discovered a king cobra, along with five civets and palm civets.

Kieu admitted that she acquired the detected animals from various sources for the purpose of reselling.

On December 26, police sought assistance from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology to identify the species of the animals in question.

The institute’s conclusion revealed that the discovered sun bears and king cobras are listed in Group IB, which consists of endangered and rare forest plants and animals, as per Decree 84/2021/ND-CP issued on September 22, 2021 by the Vietnamese government.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!