PHITSANULOK: Two Vietnamese men were arrested after tiger skulls, bones and dried meat were found in their luggage on a Tak-Mukdahan interprovincial passenger bus in the early hours of Thursday.
Police detained them during a rest stop at Phitsanulok provincial bus terminal 1 in Muang district, acting on a tip-off from a bus company employee that two foreign passengers were acting suspiciously.
The two Vietanamese were sitting on the top floor of the double-decker Tak-Mukdahan interprovincial bus when police arrived.
A body search found nothing illegal on the men. Police then examined their bags, fertiliser sacks, that they had deposited in the luggage compartment of the bus. Inside were several black plastic bags containing the dried bones and dried meat of tigers.
The duo, identified as Le Binh, 40, and Nguyen Van Tung, 29, were taken to Muang police station in Phitsanulok for further investigation and legal action.
The two suspects confessed they had purchased the goods from a compatriot identified only as Tun, at his house in Tak, for 30,000 baht, according to police. They then boarded the bus from Mae Sot district in Tak, heading to Mukdahan.
Police suspected they were members of a gang that smuggles and trades in tiger meat and bones in Vietnam.
The duo were held in police custody on charges of illegal possession of carcasses of protected wild animals.
Police are expanding the investigation.
Wildlife and forestry experts said the bones were those of a male Bengal tiger aged 15-20 years.
Niphon Chamnong, director of the 11th forest conservation management office, said the seized tiger parts, whicxh included dried meat, a sex organ, legs and hip bones, were from a male believed to have lived along the Thai-Myanmar border in Tak.
The tiger would have weighed about 200 kilogrammes and its parts could fetched up 8,000 baht a kilo. There was no sign of the tiger's skin, which was very valuable. Mr Niphon said.
He said there were a total of 23 pieces of the tiger found in the sacks, along with two bags of agarwood bark weighing 2kg.
Pol Col Songphol Sangkasem, chief of Phitsanulok police, said the suspects were facing three charges - possessing the carcass of a protected wild animal, illegal trading of the carcass and concealing the carcass. The offences carried a maximum penalty of four years in prison and/or a fine of 40,000 baht.
Officers find tiger skulls, bones and dried meat in black plastic bags inside fertiliser sacks belonging to the two Vietnamese passengers. (Photo by Chinnawat Singha)
(Photo by Chinnawat Singha)