Pangolin scales. — VNA/VNS Photo Hùng Võ
HÀ NỘI — The People’s Court of northern province Hưng Yên on Wednesday sentenced a man to five years and three months in jail for storing 780kg of pangolin scales.
The convicted man is Nguyễn Văn Long, 36, residing in Tân Tiến Commune in Hưng Yên Province’s Văn Giang District.
During a raid on the house of Long’s older brother in September 2018, the Environmental Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, in collaboration with local police, detected 32 sacks containing 780kg of pangolin scales without a certificate of origin. Long later admitted he owned the goods.
The goods included 225kg of giant pangolin scales and 555kg of white-bellied pangolin scales, worth nearly VNĐ1.1 billion (US$48,000).
These pangolin species do not exist in nature in Việt Nam and are listed in the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The court also ordered the destruction of the confiscated scales.
Bùi Thị Hà, Deputy Director of Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), said this is the first case relating to African pangolin scales brought to trial in the past five years.
Earlier, in July 2020, the provincial People’s Court also sentenced Nguyễn Đình Hồng, born in 1989 and residing in the central province of Hà Tĩnh, to 16 years in prison after being caught transporting 116 pangolins. — VNS
Nguyễn Văn Long stands trial in Hưng Yên Province. — Photo courtesy by ENV
