PHITSANULOK: Two Vietnamese men were arrested after tiger skulls, bones and dried meat were found in their luggage on a Tak-Mukdahan interprovincial passenger bus in the early hours of Thursday.
Police detained them during a rest stop at Phitsanulok provincial bus terminal 1 in Muang district, acting on a tip-off from a bus company employee that two foreign passengers were acting suspiciously.
The two Vietanamese were sitting on the top floor of the double-decker Tak-Mukdahan interprovincial bus when police arrived.
A body search found nothing illegal on the men. Police then examined their bags, fertiliser sacks, that they had deposited in the luggage compartment of the bus. Inside were several black plastic bags containing the dried bones and dried meat of tigers.
The duo, identified as Le Binh, 40, and Nguyen Van Tung, 29, were taken to Muang police station in Phitsanulok for further investigation and legal action.
The two suspects confessed they had purchased the goods from a compatriot identified only as Tun, at his house in Tak, for 30,000 baht, according to police. They then boarded the bus from Mae Sot district in Tak, heading to Mukdahan.
Police suspected they were members of a gang that smuggles and trades in tiger meat and bones in Vietnam.
The duo were held in police custody on charges of illegal possession of carcasses of protected wild animals.
Police are expanding the investigation.
