ZHENGZHOU, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese customs busted an endangered animal smuggling ring, seizing two Bengal tiger skins.
In mid-May, local customs in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, and Fuzhou, capital of eastern China's Fujian Province, seized one item of yellow tiger skin in a domestic express sent to Lankao County, Henan.
After investigation, a suspect surnamed Wang was arrested and another white tiger skin seized.
The two tiger skins are each more than three meters long, worth around 1.6 million yuan (about 232,650 U.S. dollars), according to the customs.
They belong to the endangered Bengal tigers and are listed as a CITES Appendix I species.
A total of five suspects were arrested and 200 grams of ivory were also seized. Further investigation is underway.
Since the beginning of 2019, Zhengzhou customs has reported five smuggling cases involving endangered species and seized 8 kg of ivory and red coral items worth 3 million yuan.
