VietNamNet Bridge –Police are cracking down on thieves who chop down the capital's precious sua trees.

Nguyen Duc Chung, the deputy director of Ha Noi police, said documents relating to earlier cases of theft would be sent to the prosecutors' office before September 15.

Since the start of this year, there have been 20 cases of alleged destruction and theft of sua trees in Ha Noi.

Since May, 32 people involved with illegal felling of sua trees have been arrested.

Armed thieves allegedly used force to overpower staff from the Urban Environment Company to steal five sua trees in Dong Anh and Hoang Mai districts this year.

In April, 35 people were jailed for between 18 months and nine years for stealing sua trees.

Sua (Dalbergia tonkinensis prain) wood has medicinal properties.

One cubic metre of sua cost about 2.5 million yuan ($366,000) in November 2007. Prices this year have skyrocketed to $578,000 a cubic metre.

There are about 1,000 sua trees in the capital, most of which are about 60 to 70 years old.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News