Customs officers in east China have arrested an Indonesian man and a Chinese man on charges of trafficking tiger parts products.

Officers arrested the Indonesian man, surnamed Ander, as he was collecting his baggage at Huangdao island ferry port, Shandong Province.

He was found to be carrying a complete tiger pelt hidden in coffee powder, said Yu Jia, a publicity official with the customs office in Qingdao city.

He confessed to smuggling the pelt of a Bengal tiger, an endangered subspecies of tiger, from Indonesia, said Yu.

The Indonesian man also allegedly admitted trafficking a tiger's gallbladder, teeth, bone and penis products in July and August this year through two separate ports in southern China.

Customs police searched the Indonesian man's temporary residence in Yantai city, near Qingdao, where they seized the products and arrested the Chinese man surnamed Qu.

The seized tiger products are estimated to be worth one million yuan (US$13.3 million).

The two men will be charged with trafficking rare animal products. Under Chinese law, the smuggling of rare animal products valued at 200,000 yuan or more carries a sentence of up to life imprisonment or death in some cases.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)