Indian customs officers in Mumbai said they have stopped an airplane passenger who arrived from Thailand with a twisted load of snakes live, the third seizure this month.
“Customs officers … They thwarted another attempt at wild life, 16 live snakes … They seized passengers who returned from Thailand,” said customs officers at the airport of the Indian Financial Center.
The passenger, who arrived on Sunday, was arrested, said the customs agency in a statement, with “more ongoing investigation.”
Live snakes included reptiles often sold in pet commerce, and were largely poisonous, or with too weak poison to affect people.
They included league snakes, a rhinos rat and a bean boom in Kenya, among others.
At the beginning of June, Customs officers arrested a smuggling passenger dozens of poisonous vipers, also arrived from Thailand.
Days later, the officers arrested another traveler who transported 100 creatures, including lizards, CBirds and tsiraignas to cut the trees.
The wildlife trade monitors traffic, which fights against smuggling of wild animals and plants, warned about a “very worrying” trend in traffic driven by the exotic pet trade.
More than 7,000 animals, dead and alive, have been seized along the Thailand-Indian air route in the last 3.5 years, he said.
