The Mozambican police have arrested a Vietnamese citizen caught in possession of six rhinoceros horns. This is the third time this year that Vietnamese citizens have been caught at Pemba airport trying to smuggle rhino horns out of the country. It is not clear whether the horns come from rhinos killed in Mozambique or in South Africa. A spokesperson for the general command of the Mozambican police, Raul Freia, told reporters that the 58-year-old man, named as Van Nga, was arrested at the airport in the northern city of Pemba, as he was about to catch a plane. Freia did not give the man’s destination, but he was presumably intent on taking the horns to East Asia, where they are worth more than their weight in gold. Although rhino horns consist largely of keratin, the same protein found in human fingernails, they are believed to cure cancer and other diseases – a superstition that is driving the animals to the brink of extinction.
Man arrested for smuggling rhino horn – from SA?
Comments | 0
