A Mozambique court has sentenced a Vietnamese woman to 16 years in prison for possession and trafficking of lion and rhinoceros parts.
According to Club of Mozambique, Trang Kiu Trang was arrested in 2020 at Maputo International Airport. She was found to be in possession of 127 lion claws, 36 lion teeth, and five rhino horns.
Illegal trafficking of items collected from poached wildlife, for sale mostly in Asian markets, can be lucrative. Lion claws and teeth, for example, are in high demand for use as pendants and amulets.
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According to National Geographic, as tigers become more scarce, poachers and traffickers have turned more of their attention to lions.
But consequences can be steep for those who are caught.
Trang, who received the maximum jail sentence, also was ordered to pay more than $15,000 in fines.
–Image courtesy of Domingo