Picture of Chinese language customs officers holding luggage of snakes seized on the Futian Port shared on July 9, 2024
Supply: Common Administration of Customs of the Folks’s Republic of China
A person making an attempt to smuggle 104 reside snakes in his pants was caught at a Chinese language border this week, in line with the nation’s customs authority.
The animal trafficker had tried to skirt via a “no declaration channel” at a port between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, officers stated in a Tuesday assertion.
Upon inspection of his trousers, officers found six sealed luggage containing a wide range of unique snakes, together with milk snakes, western hognose snakes, corn snakes, Texas rat snakes and bullsnakes.
An accompanying video confirmed two border brokers holding up giant clear luggage stuffed with the multi-colored reside reptiles, usually sought out as unique pets.
Whereas not one of the serpents have been venomous, not less than 4 of the species are thought-about alien to China, which may represent a violation of Chinese language biosafety regulation.
The customs authority stated it could maintain the person legally accountable in accordance with the regulation with out specifying an actual punishment.
Snakes seized by Chinese language customs officers on the Futian Port and reported on July 9, 2024
Supply: Common Administration of Customs of the Folks’s Republic of China
Whereas it’s also unlawful to hold or ship reside animals into China, such instances aren’t unusual.
On the identical crossing level in 2023, a lady had reportedly been stopped making an attempt to smuggle in 5 pet snakes hidden inside her bra.
Earlier this month, customs reported somebody making an attempt to smuggle over 400 hermit and land crabs, via Shanghai’s Pudong airport. An individual was additionally caught getting into a border checkpoint from Macao with luggage of just about 20 endangered turtles.
Regardless of efforts to crack down on the commerce, China is the largest vacation spot for unlawful wildlife trafficking on the earth, in line with the World Organized Crime Index, a challenge funded by the U.S. and EU governments.
The index additionally recognized Hong Kong as a serious transit hub for re-exporters within the unlawful wildlife commerce resulting from “weak traceability methods.”
In March, the U.S. Division of Justice charged a Hong Kong man with making an attempt to smuggle 40 protected turtles from the U.S. to Hong Kong in 2023. Court docket paperwork alleged he had beforehand smuggled over 1,500 turtles – with a market worth exceeding $2 million.
Between 2010 and 2020, Hong Kong Customs seized greater than 1 billion Hong Kong {dollars} ($128 million) of black market worth in trafficked wildlife merchandise, together with almost 34 tonnes of ivory, in line with the World Vast Fund for Nature.
