vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #552 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Police of the Khorol County in south western Primorye detained a man who had three tiger skins and eight sacks stuffed with bear paws and deer horns in his car on Wednesday.

Police stopped the man to check his driver’s license and discovered that his car was full of body parts of endangered animals registered in the national red book. Police seized 283 bear paws, 530 deer horns, three tiger skins and several sacks with tiger bones.

The 56-year old man whose name was not revealed, told the police he had no idea of the cargo he was carrying. According to him, some Chinese nationals asked him to transport the bags from Ussurisk to the town of Kamen-Rybolov in Khorol County.

Police have launched an investigation into the case. Experts believe that a new law regulating activities of foreign traders in the territory of Russia introduced on January 15 provoked an urgent necessity to sneak the animals’ parts into China. Bear paws, tiger bones and deer horns are widely used in Chinese traditional medicine. Tiger skins are highly valued for their fur.

The previous estimates of the detained cargo account to no less than $70,000 in Russia. The sale price usually doubles. The ecological damage is considerable and hard to evaluate. Ecologists say that only 450 Amur tigers are left in the Far East of Russia.