CHENNAI: A bid to smuggle live spiders belonging to an endangered species, was foiled by the Air Customs after a parcel from Poland was seized from the Foreign Post Office here. The spiders, listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), were packed in a parcel and posted to an Aruppukottai-based person.
The CITES is a treaty to prevent species from becoming endangered due to trade. The parcel contained a thermocol box and in it were 107 small plastic vials wrapped in silver foil and cotton. The vials had live spiders in them.Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) officials and a scientist from the Zoological Survey of India (SRC) identified the species to be of Genus Phonopelma and Brachypelma, which are CITES-listed tarantulas, and native to South, Central America and Mexico.
The Animal Quarantine Officials recommended deporting the parcel to its country of origin. “There was no Director General of Foreign Trade license or health related documents, and hence the conveyance was illegal,” they reportedly said. The spiders were seized under the Customs Act 1962 read with FT (D&R) Act. The parcel has been handed over to postal authorities for sending it back to Poland.