Hanoi - Police in Vietnam arrested a man for smuggling a slaughtered tiger, just two months after two other men were arrested for smuggling two tiger carcasses, local media said Monday.

Police in Hanoi arrested Pham Dinh Van, 48, at his house in Thanh Xuan district Friday night after finding a slaughtered tiger in a refrigerator, according to the newspaper Vietnam Law.

The newspaper said the tiger weighed about 190 kilograms and had been cut into five pieces.

Van admitted to the police that he bought the tiger near a border gate between Vietnam and Laos for 320 million dong (19,000 dollars) to make tiger paste used in Vietnamese traditional medicine, the newspaper said.

"Tiger paste," made by boiling tiger bones and said to restore the bones of the elderly, can sell for as much as 5,000 dollars a kilogram on the black market, according to several customers.

The police found 6.5 kilograms of paste made from animal bones at Van's house, and are determining whether or not it is tiger paste.

In April, police in Ninh Binh province, 100 kilometers south of Hanoi, arrested two men for smuggling two disemboweled tiger carcasses weighing 265 kilograms.

Forest rangers in Vietnam seized more than 7,700 trafficked wild animals last year, including more than 1,000 rare animals, according to the National Forest Protection Department.

According to Vietnamese law, people hunting, transporting or trading in rare animals are subject to a prison term of up to seven years and a cash fine of up to 20 million dong (1,250 dollars). (dpa)