A Vietnamese man was arrested at Suvarnabhumi international airport in Bangkok on Monday night as he tried to smuggle rhino horns, originally from Republic of the Congo, to the Laotian capital of Vientiane.
The 36-year-old suspect boarded a flight from Lubumbashi in the Republic of the Congo to Addis Abba in Ethiopia, where he transited to travel to Bangkok en route to Vientiane.
Security officials at Suvarnabhumi airport noticed something suspicious in his luggage, as it was being scanned before being loaded onto a Thai Airways flight bound for Vientiane.
Officials from the Wild Fauna and Flora Protection Division stationed at the airport were alerted. They opened the bag and found a Styrofoam container stuffed with six pieces of rhino horn weighing 11.5kg, wrapped in animal hide.
The suspect was taken into custody by the wildlife officials for questioning, before being handed over to the police to face charges of trafficking in protected wildlife species.
Rhino horn is highly-priced in China and Vietnam, where they are believed to be an aphrodisiac.
Commercial trade in rhino horns has been banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1977. Thailand is a signatory to CITES.
