...
The shipment contained 165 wooden crates declared as African sawn timber, which arrived in July under the name of the Thanh Cong Trading Services and Translation Joint Stock Company, according to Gia Lai provincial police.
Investigators used specialized scanning equipment to discover hidden compartments inside 12 timber crates that were hollowed out, local media reported. Traffickers had packed the ivory and bones in wax in those compartments and sealed them with wood to make the packages appear ordinary and bypass inspections.
The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology subsequently tested the ivory and bones and confirmed they came respectively from elephants and big cats.
...
Chris Shepherd, who campaigns against wildlife trafficking with the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity, noted that a shipment from Africa that includes big cat parts reflects a changing landscape as local species disappear. “As Southeast Asian cats, such as tigers and leopards, dwindle, cat parts are sought elsewhere,” he said.
...
Mongabay reported earlier this year that since the mid-2000s, China and Vietnam have emerged as global hotspots for the illegal wildlife trade, with Africa being the prominent source of the contraband.
...
Web Archive link
There has got to be a way to dissuade this insane extinction market...
Murder