Two men in central Vietnam have been arrested for purchasing two adult tigers weighing nearly 400 kg, which were frozen and intended to be processed into tiger bone glue for sale.
Thanh Hoa Provincial Police announced on Saturday that the Criminal Investigation Agency had initiated criminal proceedings and temporarily detained Hoang Cao Dat, 52, and Nguyen Doan Son, 31.
Three days earlier, officers from the Economic Police Department inspected the basement of Dat’s residence and discovered two dead tigers with their internal organs removed, stored in a freezer.
A frozen tiger found by the police at the house of Hoang Cao Dat in Thanh Hoa Province, central Vietnam, February 2026. Photo by Read/Lam Son |
Dat confessed that he had contacted Son via social media and purchased the tigers for nearly VND2 billion (US$77,000), intending to cook them into tiger bone glue to sell for profit.
Son was arrested on Friday. He admitted to buying the two tigers from a Laotian man in the border area of Ha Tinh Province before transporting them to Thanh Hoa to resell to Dat.
Authorities said that to conceal his activities, Dat had constructed a cellar beneath his house, installed reinforced iron doors, and set up a surveillance camera system to avoid detection. After acquiring the tigers, he allegedly processed the tiger bone glue himself for sale on the market.
Tigers are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their population is threatened by poaching for illegal wildlife trade, as some people believe their bones could be used to make traditional medicine to treat certain ailments.
Son and Dat are being investigated for violating regulations on the protection of endangered and rare animals, which carries penalties of between one and 15 years imprisonment and cash fines of up to VND5 billion.
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