Vietnamese police have discovered two dead tigers stored in freezers in a man’s basement, arresting him and another suspect for the illegal trade of the endangered animals.
Authorities in Thanh Hoa province, south of Hanoi, said the frozen bodies of the two adult tigers weighed about 400 kilograms (882 pounds) in total. The 52-year-old homeowner, Hoang Dinh Dat, told police he bought the animals for two billion dong ($77,000) from 31-year-old Nguyen Doan Son, who was also arrested.
Police said Dat had equipment to produce “tiger bone glue,” a traditional medicine believed to treat skeletal ailments.
Tigers once roamed Vietnam’s forests but have now almost entirely disappeared. The Southeast Asian country remains a hub and transit route for illegal wildlife products, including tiger bones.