The smuggler who travels from Thailand stopped with lizards, tarantulas, tsigüyas, authorities in India say

Indian customs officers made the last “significant” seizure of wildlife in danger of extinction of a passenger who arrived from Thailand, a government statement said: almost 100 creatures, including lizards, suns and tsarigüeyas.

Customs officers said the passenger, who also wore two spiders and turtles of Tarantula, had “exhibited signs of nervousness” upon reaching the financial capital of India, Mumbai.

The seizure occurs after a passenger stopped smuggling dozens of poisonous vipersalso arriving from Thailand, in early June. They included 44 Indonesian well vipers and were “hidden in the billed luggage,” Mumbai Customs said in a statement.

Wild life in the last seizure included iguanas, as well as a kinkajou or honey bear, a small animal like Mapache from the tropical jungles of Mexico, along with six “sugar plainters”, a sliding tsarigüeya in Australia.

The photographs published by the Customs Unit showed the six sugar plain plainters in a basket, as well as a box full of lizards.

“In a significant operation, customs officers … intercepted an Indian national … who leads to the seizure of multiple species of lively and deceased wildlife, some of which are protected by the laws of protection of wildlife,” said the Ministry of Finance in a statement on Monday night.

Smuggling disturbing trend

The wildlife trade monitors traffic, which fights against the smuggling of animals and wild plants, warned on Tuesday a “very worrying” trend in traffic driven by the exotic pet trade.

More than 7,000 animals, dead and alive, have been seized along the Thailand-Indian air route in the last 3 and a half years, he said.

Customs officers at Mumbai airport are more accustomed to confiscating the smuggling gold, cash or cannabis, but cases of wildlife seizure have recently seen a gradual increase.

Customs officers confiscated dozens of snakes and several turtles of an Indian national that flies from Thailand in early June.

Among them were several vipers with spider -tailed horns, a poisonous species that only scientists describe in 2006 and classified as “almost threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Traffic said his analysis showed that, although most cases involve smuggling animals in Thailand, more than 80 percent of interceptions occurred in India.

“The almost fine discoveries and the diversity of wildlife on the way to India are very worrying,” said Southeast Traffic director Kanitha Krishnasamy.

Many of the captured were alive, which “shows that the clamor for exotic pets is promoting the trade,” he added.

In February, Customs officials at Mumbai airport also arrested a smuggler with five Siamang Gibbons, a small native ape of the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Those small creatures, listed as in danger of extinction by IUCN, were “ingeniously hidden” in a plastic box placed inside the passenger’s car bag, customs officers said.

In November, the authorities found a passenger who had a twisted live load of 12 turtles.