Vietnamese Jailed For 16 Years In Mozambique

By Jorge Joaquim A Court in Maputo, southern Mozambique, sentenced a Vietnamese woman to 16 years imprisonment for trafficking in wildlife products, including rhinoceros horns and lion claws and teeth. According to a note from the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC), the Vietnamese citizen intended to smuggle these goods out of the country via Maputo International Airport. The 30 year old Vietnamese woman, had been living in Maputo for about a year, and she was about to board a departing international flight with the illicit wildlife trophies, intending to return to Vietnam. A sniffer dog of the ANAC canine unit detected the presence of the rhino and lion parts. “The prevention and fight against crimes against biodiversity in Mozambique has achieved notable results, thanks to the coordination between the institutions of criminal investigation and the organs of the administration of justice in close collaboration with our partners”, said the ANAC release. Both species of African rhinos, the black and the white, are believed to be extinct in southern Mozambique. It is thus likely that the horns came from animals poached elsewhere in the region, perhaps in neigbouring South Africa.