A tonne of animal parts, including 867 bear paws and the bones of five rare Amur tigers, were seized in eastern Russia as they were about to be delivered to China for use in medicines.
Customs officers and border guards stopped the smugglers as they prepared to cross the frozen Lake Khanka, which separates the two countries. It is the biggest consignment of illegal animal parts to be confiscated on the border for a decade.
The sackloads of paws were mostly from Himalayan black bears and brown bears, and would have fetched an estimated £700,000. There are only about 540 Amur tigers left in the wild, mostly in Russia. President Putin has been an advocate for their protection. The goods also included tiger claws, deer tails and penises, the gall bladders of bears and dried frog fat.
Customs officers said that two minibuses and a car with a trailer were filled to the roof with the contraband. A Saiga rifle and Kalashnikov ammunition were recovered. Three Chinese citizens and two Russians were detained. Alexei Kurayev, a regional customs chief, said that the load was being delivered for the Chinese new year on February 16.
Sergei Aramilev, director of the Amur Tiger Centre, said: “Lots of the animal parts were to be used in preparing dishes, including curative ones, for the new year table or as a gift for high-ranking people.”