Hanoi - Police in Vietnam have seized more than a ton of live wild monitor lizards being smuggled from central Vietnam to the country's northern provinces, where they might have been destined for China, officials said Tuesday.

The lizards were found Sunday packed in wooden boxes on a truck heading north from Quang Tri province, 580 kilometers south of Hanoi, said Tran Xuan Vinh, head of the province's Economic Police Department.

"We seized 1,012 kilograms of monitor lizards and arrested the driver of the truck immediately," Vinh said.

The driver of the truck, Vu Van Duong, 36, confessed to the police that he was hired to transport the animals to the north, the police official said.

"We have launched an investigation into the case to find the leaders of the ring," Vinh said. "The reptiles were probably destined for restaurants in either Hanoi or China."

The police have transferred the lizards to the province's Forest Management Department, which will release them into the wild.

Smuggling wild animals is rampant in Vietnam, where eating wild animals is an elite habit of the rich. Vietnam seized more than 66 tons of smuggled wild animals last year.

According to Vietnamese law, smuggling wild animals is subject to a prison term of up to seven years and a cash fine of 20 million dong (1,250 dollars). (dpa)