Customs officers in east China have arrested an Indonesian man
and a Chinese man on charges of trafficking tiger parts
products.
Officers arrested the Indonesian man, surnamed Ander, as he was
collecting his baggage at Huangdao island ferry port, Shandong
Province.
He was found to be carrying a complete tiger pelt hidden in
coffee powder, said Yu Jia, a publicity official with the customs
office in Qingdao city.
He confessed to smuggling the pelt of a Bengal tiger, an
endangered subspecies of tiger, from Indonesia, said Yu.
The Indonesian man also allegedly admitted trafficking a tiger's
gallbladder, teeth, bone and penis products in July and August this
year through two separate ports in southern China.
Customs police searched the Indonesian man's temporary residence
in Yantai city, near Qingdao, where they seized the products and
arrested the Chinese man surnamed Qu.
The seized tiger products are estimated to be worth one million
yuan (US$13.3 million).
The two men will be charged with trafficking rare animal
products. Under Chinese law, the smuggling of rare animal products
valued at 200,000 yuan or more carries a sentence of up to life
imprisonment or death in some cases.
(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)