Discover 2 passengers smuggled rhino horn

Rhino horn was seized by Customs force on the night of 13th June 2017

Two people are including: 1 man at the age of 36 years old and 1 woman in the age of 32 years old, both of them are Vietnamese people and take a flight from Africa to Vietnam. They smuggled 8 pieces of rhino horn with a total weight of nearly 4 kg that hidden inside the personal luggage. Those are the horn of White Rhino (science name: Ceratotherium simum) which are rare and valuable, the estimated value is nearly 8 billion vnd.

Those people used sophisticated trick to hide those horn in personal luggage such as cosmetics box, terracotta pots, boxes of cookies,… that aimed to escape competent forces’ notice. However, by applying professional skills and information collection, the Customs authorities have timely detected and prevented the case.

Currently, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch is completing the dossier in order to prosecute the case and continue to cooperate with the competent authorities to investigate for clarification the lines and violations of the subjects.

Earlier, since the beginning of 2017, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch collaborated with the Department of Crime Prevention and Smuggling (C74) - Ministry of Public Security and Police Division on Economic Management Order and Position (PC46) - Ho Chi Minh City Police to detect 3 illegal shipments of more than 6 kg of rhino horns and 2 cases of transporting 10 kg of ivory illegally. The cases have been prosecuted by Tan Son Nhat International Airport Customs Branch due to transporting illegal goods across the border.