800 kg of rotten suckling pigs seized in transport

Yesterday a patrol police team stopped a suspicious truck for examination and discovered that it was carrying the pigs, all of which were rotten and stinking.

The truck’s driver, Huynh Ngoc Vu, 23, of Quang Ngai Province, failed to show the police any documents or a quarantine certificate related to the goods.

Vu said he had been hired by a woman identified simply as Huong in Nghe An Province’s Vinh City to transport the pigs to Quang Ngai to be sold.

The team has given the rotten pigs to the local environmental police for handling.

Last April, a joint inspection team in Ho Chi Minh City seized 215 decomposed suckling pigs and a large amount of rotten pigskin loaded onto two buses for delivery.

While examining the buses in the yard of Cam Van Co Ltd, located at 49 Tan Thanh, Hoa Thanh Ward, Tan Phu District, inspectors found that one of them carrying three cartons containing 67 dead suckling pigs and two bags of pigskin – all rotten and stinking.

In the other bus were another 10 cartons containing 148 suckling pigs, 7 cartons of pig fat, and 5 bags of pigskin – all in the initial stage of decomposition.

The bus driver, Huynh Van Thau, of Binh Dinh Province, said he had been hired by a trader to transport the decaying goods to HCMC for VND50,000 (US$2.4) per carton.