What links 4,500 years of Asian medicine with black bears in American forests and a mysterious murder in Brooklyn? Answer: the burgeoning global trade in scarce animal parts, some used for exotic medical purposes. Police think that a theft of bear gallbladders may have been behind the killing last week of Lee Haeng Gu, a Korean-born businessman who was found in his apartment with his throat slashed. Lee apparently conducted a lucrative international trade in bear parts and kept his wares at home in three freezers.
Bear gallbladders fetch about $18,000 each in Asia, where they are converted into tablet form...
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