The combat team on environmental crimes at the Criminal Police Department's Organized Crime Division discovered a clue leading to the arrest of suspected poachers who sold the body parts of endangered species living in Central Asia.

The combat team arrested 10 men, all citizens of Mongolia, who were in possession of 162 saiga antelopes horns in the Bayangol District, on October 24th.

Saiga antelope, included in the Mongolian Red Book, are close to extinction worldwide and critically endangered in Asia. The 162 horns means that at least 81 saiga antelopes were illegally slaughtered. The saiga antelope population vanished in Mongolia in the 1950s. Now, only small herds exist in Kazakhstan, according to a study by the World Wildlife Fund.

The suspects were caught while attempting to sell the horns to Chinese traders. According to a source from the District Prosecutor's Office, the horns were smuggled in to Mongolia from Russia.  The combat team on environmental crimes suspect that a large network of poachers is operating internationally, through Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and China.

The suspects are now being held in Detention Center 461, on the charges of violating Mongolian laws on hunting and trafficking the body parts of wild animals.

According to “Ecological and Economic Assessment of Wild Animals” approved by the Government of Mongolia in 2011, a male saiga antelope is valued at 2 million MNT and a female is valued at 2.2 million MNT.

The suspects face estimated damages against the environment of at least 162 million MNT.

If they are found guilty, the suspects will be fined three-times the loss to the environment, or 151 to 250 times the minimum monthly wage, or face three to five years in prison.