BANGKOK: Six Indians have been detained by Thai customs authorities for trying to smuggle 86 animals, including monitor lizards, parrots, and red pandas, out of the country, officials said on Wednesday.
As the suspects attempted to board a flight to Mumbai at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, the illegal menagerie was found concealed in their checked luggage.
Wildlife smugglers use Thailand as a key transit hub and often sell their animals in China and Vietnam, though there has been a recent surge in trafficking to India.
“We now know that there are 87 animals in total—29 black throat monitor lizards, 21 snakes, 15 birds, including parrots. The Customs Department released a statement saying, “The animals were hidden inside the luggage.”
Images supplied by the department showed a parrot closed in a plastic container with air holes haphazardly pierced in the lid, and an endangered red panda peering out of a wicker basket.
Lizards were seen coiled together in cloth sacks, and there were more plastic tubs filled with them. The maximum sentence for the suspects is ten years in prison or four times the amount of import duties.
A Mongolian man was detained at the same airport last month after attempting to smuggle out of the country two dozen live fish, pythons, and Komodo dragons.
