Two men were arrested on Saturday after they were caught trying to smuggle wild animals from Kratie’s Snuol district to Vietnam.

Nine species were uncovered, including a roe deer — which later died — a monitor lizard, two species of snakes, turtles, a ferret, an iguana, parrots and an unidentified bird. Snuol commune police chief Thay Lythun said yesterday the Provincial Forestry Adminis-tration and local authorities had worked together to rescue the trapped animals.

“A man bought wild animals and our police saw and followed him to a home where those animals were stocked for trade in Vietnam,” Lythun said. In a separate incident on Saturday, Kampong Cham provincial police stopped a car and arrested two men after 65kg of snakes were found in the vehicle.