Endangered species have home on market shelves

For 20 years, Hung Duong has stocked the shelves of her Truong Thanh Market in Minneapolis with Asian foods, beverages and herbal remedies that keep her customers -- many hungry for the traditions of home -- coming back.

She also has been selling illegal products made from endangered plants and animals, according to federal affidavits filed in recent months by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In undercover visits to Duong's and other Twin Cities Asian markets over the past three years, federal agents have bought herbal tea containing gecko -- yes, that gecko -- and packages of antelope horn, seahorses and products made with tiger bone and snake gall.

It's part of the agency's intensified effort to thwart the lucrative, illicit and ecologically devastating trade in endangered species within Minnesota's sizable immigrant communities, federal officials say. The investigation also highlights a continuing clash between federal officials adhering to international laws and treaties and an immigrant community holding onto its healing traditions.

"It doesn't matter if they work or not. It's what they contain -- or claim to," said Sheila O'Connor, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent who has seized hundreds of illegal items from area markets. "Anytime there is a market for these things, I guarantee you there is somebody out there willing to kill a tiger to make it into medicine."

But Duong, and other shopkeepers caught with things like tiger plaster and bear bile, say they're simply providing what customers have used for generations. They complain that federal officials don't tell them what they are allowed to sell.

"People buy it for their grandfather, their father. They know these things, they ask for it and we find it," said Duong. "But all this is scary. What did I do wrong? [Federal agents] said whatever they took, I mostly cannot sell. That's all I know."

On several occasions, federal agents have seized boxes of illegal animal products from Michael Pham's Duc Loi Supermarket in Minneapolis. But Pham says such trade is not a big part of his business.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "We don't carry that much anyway."

Big-bucks business

But O'Connor, who has enforced federal and international wildlife laws for 18 years, said the plant and animal trade is a big black market business. As she surveys dozens of products seized from area businesses over the past few years, she recites the kinds of prices that keep poachers and illegal importers busy:

Rhinoceros horn at $25,000 a pound; skin of pangolin, an armadillo-like animal, at $400 a pound; tiger penis at $70,000 and up; musk deer extract at $27 a gram.

People often grind up these items and put them into tea or food to alleviate everything from upset stomachs to impotence to headaches, O'Connor said. "But, when people buy these products, they really are killing wildlife."

Neither Pham nor Duong has been charged with a crime. But in July, two women pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to one count of conspiracy to smuggle wildlife. The women, Pa Lor of Oakdale and Tia Yang of Lake Elmo, admitted they smuggled items into Minnesota from Southeast Asia and sold them at the International Market -- a sprawling bazaar of mostly Hmong-owned businesses not far from the State Capitol. Products sold by the women included elephant, leopard, leaf monkey and weasel. They are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18.

Linda Benson, a federal wildlife inspector who works at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said the illegal import of Asian medicinals "is really big here." She works closely with customs inspectors and other agencies to flag illegal items.

"We're kind of the front line," she said.

Once, she got a call from the airport's mail facilities noting that "there was a little hand sticking out of a box." It belonged to a dead monkey. Another time, she said, she stopped a woman who was trying to smuggle two palm-size live tortoises -- one stuffed in her bra, another in her purse. A search of the woman also turned up ivory, crocodile skins and bracelets made from elephant hair, Benson said.

Keeping illegal items out can be tough, she admitted. There are only 115 wildlife inspectors working at 38 ports of entry across the country.

But Benson has learned some things. While people often won't admit to bringing in animal products, they will acknowledge carrying medicines, she said -- typically for ailing family members.

"I would say that 90 percent of the people who come through here don't know they're violating the law," she said.

Only time will stop it

Bao Vang, 39, has lived in the United States since she was 10. When she is sick, she goes to Western doctors and takes Western medicines -- 90 percent of the time. "I still use 10 percent herbal remedies, because of how well they work," said Vang, the executive director of the Hmong-American Partnership, a Twin Cities education and social services organization.

Of course, if her parents hear she's not feeling well, her dad will bring over his trusty coin -- the one he puts into a hard-boiled egg. He then will rub the egg over Vang's forehead and neck to make her feel better.

"There is this clash between modern medicine and traditional healing," she said, smiling.

While she said her family doesn't use illegal animal products, she doubts that those who do will stop lifelong practices just because they are told it's against the law.

"The only thing that will end it is time," she said, "as we become more Americanized and as people age out of it."

Shopkeepers at several Twin Cities Asian markets were asked whether medicines, pills and vials of oils contained illegal animal parts -- such as tiger, bear, seal or snake. Many said no. Others said they didn't know what their products contain, because the items were imported from Asia and their labels carried only Asian characters.

One woman selling medicine and other items at the International Market in St. Paul said the horns she was selling were from cattle. When asked if she carried antelope horns, which were part of the seizure earlier this year, she said no -- and mentioned the illegality of doing so.

Duong, the owner of Truong Thanh Market on Nicollet Avenue, said she assumed it was legal to sell such items because they had already been imported into the United States by brokers.

"We're in business. We don't want to do anything illegal," she said. "We would like to know exactly what it is we can sell, and what we can't sell. I tend to worry."

Staff writer Chao Xiong contributed to this report. James Walsh • 612-673-7428