Following the discovery of 109 live animals in their luggage at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, two women were detained and charged with smuggling, according to Thai authorities.
The wild animals were found in two suitcases after an x-ray check, according to a statement released on Monday by Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation.
Two white porcupines, two armadillos, 35 turtles, 50 lizards, and 20 snakes were found in the two pieces of luggage by wildlife inspectors who were called to the site.
Nithya Raja, 38, and Zakia Sulthana Ebrahim, 24, two Indian ladies who were scheduled to fly to Chennai, were identified by Thai authorities as the owners of the luggage.
The women allegedly broke the Animal Disease Act of 2015, the Customs Act of 2017, and the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act of 2019.
Animal trafficking through airports has been a problem in the area for a while. 2019 saw the detention at the airport of a man traveling from Bangkok to Chennai, India, after customs officials discovered a month-old leopard cub in his suitcase.
TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring organization, said in March 2022 that 140 seizures at 18 Indian airports between 2011 and 2020 resulted in the discovery of more than 70,000 native and exotic wild animals, as well as their body parts or derivatives.
The research stated that Chennai International Airport in Tamil Nadu had the most instances of wildlife seizure, followed by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai and Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi.
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