Four smugglers, including two Russians, have been convicted of smuggling 35 bear paws into China.

 

The Intermediate People's Court of Hulun Buir City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said the four convicted men were Zhou Xinquan, Jiang Zhenyou, both of Yakeshi, in Inner Mongolia, and two Russians who were diesel locomotive drivers from Zabaikalsk.

 

The court was told that Zhou, 30, ordered bear paws from a trader at the market in Zabaikalsk City, in the state of Chita, in Russia, with a down payment of 25,000 rubles (US$980) last December.

 

The Russian trader phoned Zhou in January this year telling him he had 35 bear paws ready. Zhou asked one of his friends, a businessman in Zabaikalsk to get the money for him. With the help of Jiang Zhenyou, 31, whom Zhou met doing business in Zabaikalsk years ago, Zhou found the two Russian locomotive drivers who agreed to hide the bear paws inside their locomotives and smuggle them to the railway station in the border city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia.

 

The 35 bear paws are estimated to be worth 180,000 yuan (US$23,882).

 

The court ruled that the four were guilty of smuggling rare animal parts and sentenced Zhou to a jail term of three years with a reprieve of three years, plus a 70,000 yuan fine.

 

Jiang was sentenced to one year in jail with a reprieve of two years, and a 40,000 yuan.

 

The two Russians were deported from China after being fined 80,000 yuan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2007)