VietNamNet Bridge – According to the wildlife conservation society, Vietnam is the gateway through which pangolins are smuggled and carried to China.

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Pangolins have to experience a long-distance travel from the Cau Treo border gate to the secret assembly points. Merchants would come there to take pangolins away for distribution. The points have been described as small market with bustling trade activities, though they are secret markets.

Pangolins entering Vietnam are believed to come from neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. They may also be sourced from farer countries like Indonesia, Myanmar, or Malaysia.

After being informed that pangolins arrive in the assembly points, merchants would make the calls and tell how many kilos of pangolins they want to take. Some place 50-60 kilos, while bigger traders would order 200-300 kilos.

Huong, one of the merchants, said it’d be better to choose the strong pangolins with no injuries, because they would be go for better prices. She said she has always been the biggest buyer; therefore, she can get favor from the goods owner.

“I usually order 500 kilos each time,” she said.

If noting that every 100 kilos of pangolin is priced at VND370 million, one would easily calculate that Huong would have to pay VND2 billion for every consignment of goods. In general, Huong pays cash right on deliveries.

However, the pangolins are not brought to retailers right away. The animals would experience a process which allows them to get heavier before they are taken away for sale.

The technology of making pangolins heavier is really simple. Pangolins would be infused with the paste made of rice flour. However, this would require experience and technique. It is necessary to infuse a reasonable volume of rice flour into pangolin’s stomach. If pangolins “eat” too much, they may vomit, which would badly affect their health.

After the process, a pangolin would have at least two kilos in weight. Especially, some pangolins would gain five kilos in weight.

According to Huong, she has to pay VND37 million for a 100 kilos of pangolin, while she would sell at VND36.9 million in Hanoi. Besides, she would have to pay transport costs and other kinds of expenses. However, she would still make profit thanks to the “technology.”

In general, she revealed that she can pocket VND50-100 million for every consignment of goods carried to the north.

The people who Huong hires to carry pangolins to the north, must be the best drivers in the locality. They need to drive cars very fast and have experience to escape from the police stations. Therefore, local residents call them “the sons of the Wind Genie.”

A local resident said that the Highway No. 8A is really narrow, but the drivers always run their cars at the speed of 80 kilometers per hour. Binh, who lives near the highway, said: “I would find out what cars carry pangolins just by listening to the sounds from the vehicles.”

“Sometimes the cars run at midnight and awake all the people in the residential quarter,” Binh said.

Pangolins would have to change many cars which bear many different number plates before they reach the final destinations. According to the wildlife conservation society, Vietnam is the gateway through which pangolins are smuggled and carried to China.

Thien Nhien