Air passenger held in Kuala Lumpur for bid to smuggle exotic species to Tiruchy

CHENNAI: A passenger was arrested by Malaysian authorities at Kuala Lumpur international airport on Sunday night for attempting to smuggle a baby gibbon and six red-eared slider turtles to Tiruchy. According to a statement from Malaysia’s wildlife and national parks department (Perhilitan), officials acted on intelligence inputs and seized the animals from the passenger’s check-in baggage. The individual has been detained, but his identity has not been disclosed.

Exporting protected wildlife species without valid documents is an offence under Malaysian law. The arrest comes less than a week after a 50-year-old Tenkasi native was nabbed at the same airport for trying to smuggle three African spurred tortoises, four sulawesi forest turtles, and seven harlequin monitor lizards on a Batik Air flight to Tiruchy. Customs officials have intercepted several such smuggling attempts involving exotic species at airports in Tiruchy, Chennai and Bengaluru in recent years.



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