US Customs and Border Protection said it had arrested a man trying to bring 52 snakes and lizards from Mexico to the US across the California border.
This person was identified as a US citizen, aged 30. The suspect drives a truck to California’s San Ysidro border with Mexico on Feb. 25.
Here, the border officers saw signs of something suspicious, so they decided to check. They found 52 reptiles (9 snakes, 43 horned lizards) alive, tied to small plastic bags and hidden by the man inside his clothes.
Local officials said the live reptiles had been taken to safety. Some of them are identified as critically endangered species. Meanwhile, the subject has been imprisoned for conspiracy to smuggle a live reptile.
Spiny lizards are often traded (Photo: CBC)/Dan Tri.
According to Sidney Aki, Director of Customs and Border Protection in San Diego, smugglers are always looking for ways to hide goods. “In this case, the suspect attempted to bring live reptiles across the border. He misled border officials into bringing the animals into the United States without regard for their health and safety,” Sidney said.
In fact, criminals have devised “hundreds of thousands of ways” to hide wild animals in “dangerous” locations to “cover up” smuggling.
Previously, Indonesian police had arrested a suspect for smuggling 22 precious birds into water bottles and then hiding them in the trunk. A man is stopped by police as he is about to board a train in the city of Surabaya on the Java archipelago.
It was 21 yellow beaks and one blue parrot beak, locked in a water bottle, crammed into the trunk. At the investigator’s office, the suspect admitted that he brought the bird for you without knowing exactly what items he was carrying. After that, the birds were sent to the Indonesian natural resource conservation center.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
