Police in central Vietnam have arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of smuggling 680 suspected tiger claws from Laos into Vietnam.
Suspect Cao Xuan Vo and the claws were seized at his home in Nghe An province on Tuesday following a five-month investigation.
"Seeing those claws, they likely belong to tigers," said Nghe An environmental police chief Tran Huu Hong said on Thursday, adding that he suspected the claws to have originated from around 34 individual tigers.
While police said Vo confessed to smuggling the claws for around $US15,000 ($A20,325), Hong said charges were pending laboratory tests to confirm that the body parts came from tigers.
According to Thanh Nien newspaper, Vo told authorities that the claws were to be used to make jewellery.
