Hanoi (VNA) - The People’s Court of northern Hung Yen province on June 2 sentenced a man to five years and three months in jail for storing 780 kg of pangolin scales - a type of banned goods - inaccordance with Clause 3, Article 191 of the 2015 Penal Code (revised and supplemented in 2017).

The convicted is Nguyen Van Long, 36, resides in Tan Tien commune in Hung Yen province’s Van Giang district.

During a raid on the house of Long's older brother in September 2018, the Environmental Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, incollaboration with local police, detected 32 sacks containing 780 kg of pangolinscales without a certificate of origin. Long later admitted that he was the owner of the goods.

The goods include 225 kg of giant pangolinand 555 kg of white-bellied pangolin scales, worth nearly 1.1 billion VND (48,000 USD).

These pangolin species do not exist in nature in Vietnam and are listedin the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES).

The court also ordered the destruction of the confiscatedpangolin scales.

Bui Thi Ha, Deputy Director of Education for Nature Vietnam(ENV), said this is the first case relating to African pangolin scales brought totrial in the past five years.

With the severe punishment and the decision to destroy all confiscatedpangolin scales, the People's Court of Hung Yen province showedthe spirit of no tolerance for wildlife-related crime.

It served as a warning to those who have earned money illegallyfrom wild animals, she said.

Earlier, in July 2020, the provincial People’s Court also sentencedNguyen Dinh Hong, who lives in the central province of Ha Tinh’s Tay Son town, to 16years in prison after being caught red-handed transporting 116 pangolin individuals./.