HO CHI MINH CITY, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese customs officers on Sunday spotted elephant tusks and tails, leopard skins, and wild animals' claws in the luggage of an old local woman who flied from an African country to Ho Chi Minh City.
Checking the personal luggage of a 65-year-old passenger who landed at the Tan Son Nhat international airport, the officers found nearly four kg of elephant tusks, nine elephant tails, three leopard skins and many claws, the municipal Customs Department said, noting that the smuggled items are valued at over 2 billion Vietnamese dong (some 90,000 U.S. dollars).
Over the past four weeks, the airport's customs officers detected several cases of smuggling rhino horns, elephant tusks and pangolin scales worth over 10 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 450,000 U.S. dollars) from Africa to the city.