Qingdao (China)(Xinhua) : Custom officials in east China have arrested two men — an Indonesian and a Chinese — on charges of trafficking in tiger body parts.
The Indonesian, Ander, was arrested as he was collecting his baggage at the Huangdao island ferry port in Shandong Province.
He was carrying a tiger pelt hidden in coffee powder, said Yu Jia, a custom official in Qingdao city.
He confessed to smuggling the pelt of a Bengal tiger, an endangered subspecies of tiger, from Indonesia, said Yu.
Ander also reportedly admitted to smuggling in a tiger’s gallbladder, teeth, bone and penis in July and August this year through two separate ports in southern China.
While searching his temporary residence in Yantai city, near Qingdao, officials seized the products and arrested a Chinese identified only as Qu.
The seized tiger body parts are estimated to be worth one million yuan ($134,126)
The two men have been charged with trafficking rare animal parts.
Under the Chinese law, smuggling of rare animal products valued at 200,000 yuan or more carries a sentence of life imprisonment or death in some cases.