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.