A RHINO horn trader has been sentenced to 14 years in jail, the longest ever prison term a court has handed down for the crime in Vietnam, said a local conservation group today.

Vietnam is a consumption hub and popular transit point for the multibillion-dollar trade in animal parts.

Authorities have long vowed to stem the flow of illegal wildlife criss-crossing its borders, but experts said the black market persists because of weak law enforcement.

Do Minh Toan, 36, received 14 years in jail for trading and trafficking rhino horns from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Vietnam.

It came after customs officials discovered 55 pieces of rhino horn, weighing around 125kg, in a carefully disguised shipment at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi in 2019.

The pieces were encased in plaster, and police had used rods to break the casts apart.

The punishment is the toughest to date for crimes relating to rhino horns and the wildlife trade in the country, according to Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV).

“Amid the negative opinions about the handling of wildlife crimes, this heavy penalty shows that our competent authorities have begun to mete out serious punishment to deter people from wildlife crimes,” said ENV vice-director Bui Thi Ha in a statement.

The non-governmental organisation said the country has recorded 317 crimes relating to rhino horns since 2017. A total of 24 people have been arrested and charged, with the average jail term for those found guilty more than five years.

China and Vietnam remain lucrative markets for elephant tusks, pangolins, tiger parts and rhino horns.

Some believe that rhino horns help cure diseases and hangovers when ground into powder.

African poachers have decimated wild rhino populations to meet demand, despite the trade being banned worldwide since the 1970s.

Only about 29,000 rhinos survive in the wild, down from half a million at the beginning of the 20th century, according to conservationists. – AFP, December 8, 2021.