JAKARTA - A 36-year-old Vietnamese man was caught in a raid by officers at Bangkok's main international airport carrying 6 rhino horns in food-grade meat.
Airport authorities and police also seized about 12 kilograms of food meat used to hide the horns in styrofoam ice boxes.
"There were some irregularities in the X-ray scan of the baggage being checked so the authorities checked it," the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said on Tuesday, February 10, as quoted by AFP.
The perpetrator was caught carrying illegal and protected wildlife while in transit in Thailand from Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Laos.
The director of the CITES Division of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation of Thailand, Sadudee Panpakdee, added that officials were not sure about the value of the seized tusks or what type of meat was used to hide them.
The items were sent to a wildlife forensic laboratory for examination, officials said.
If found guilty, the perpetrator faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to one million baht (USD32,000).
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