Animal Poaching: Vietnam Police Find Over 220 Pounds Of Rhino Horn

Vietnamese authorities discovered and seized more than 250 pounds of rhino horn smuggled from Kenya.

Police found the horns smuggled into the country in suitcases on Tuesday, AFP reported. The horns were found in suitcases in Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi arriving on a flight from Nairobi.

Customs officials discovered the two suitcases weighing 57 kilograms [125.7 pounds] and 61 kilograms [134.5 pounds] packed with suspected rhino horns, the Capital Security Newspaper reported.

Vietnam is a hotspot for rhino horn trafficking, which is believed by many in the country to have special medicinal properties that cure headaches, hangovers, allergies and even cancer. The horns are commonly shipped from Africa to Asia where a growing demand has resulted in steep prices. Even a single kilogram (about 2 pounds) of the endangered animal’s horn can fetch as much as $60,000, AFP reported.

Read: Rhino Poaching In South Africa Reaches Record Levels

In 2016, the World Wildlife organization reported1,054 rhinos were killed in South Africa. The rhino population across Asia and Africa at the beginning of the 20th century was estimated at 500,000. Populations of rhino species began to fall when poaching took out a chunk of the population. The current rhino count hovers around 29,000, according to a rhino conservation site. Some species of rhinos face certain extinction, like the Javan rhinos (about 58-61) and the Sumatran rhinos (less than 100 left).

In 1977, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora officially banned rhino horn trade around the globe. Despite the ban, illegal trafficking has persisted, and even South Africa considered legalizing and regulating the trade domestically — and some export — to quell the steady flow of rhino horn trafficking.