Animal smuggling foiled at airport<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Tangerang<\/p>\n
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's animal quarantine hall
\nlooked like a miniature version of Noah's Ark on Friday, lined
\nwith cages containing 246 wild animals from a dazzling array of
\nspecies. The only difference was that they did not come in pairs.<\/p>\n
The protected animals were saved by the airport's security
\npersonnel and tax and immigration officers from being smuggled to
\nKuwait on Wednesday night. Five suspects were arrested and are
\nnow being detained by the airport police.<\/p>\n
\"The animals are protected by Law No. 5\/1990 on the
\ninternational conventions on biological resources and Law No.
\n16\/1992 on the quarantine of fauna and flora,\" said the head of
\nthe quarantine unit at the Ministry of Agriculture, Delima
\nAshari, as quoted by Antara on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The rescued animals comprised 91 cuscus (Phalanger species),
\nthree owa from Kalimantan (Hylobates species), four gibbons,
\nseven stripped squirrels, 83 brown squirrels, 14 monkeys, four
\nshort-tailed macaques and 40 pigeons.<\/p>\n
The suspects, identified as Gholan Reza, Yousef KH, M.
\nAlmezver, Marhan E. and H.A. Alharban, were attempting to board
\nKuwait Airways flight number KU 414.<\/p>\n
Their baggage included three large wooden crates with gauze
\nventilation strips in which they kept the animals, and which drew
\nthe suspicion of airport employees.<\/p>\n
The suspects said they purchased the animals at Pasar Pramuka
\nin East Jakarta. The market is known as a center of the protected
\nanimal trade.<\/p>\n
Delima estimated the animals were worth roughly Rp 1.386
\nbillion (about US$155,730), with a price range for each animal of
\nbetween Rp 50,000 and Rp 75 million.<\/p>\n
The airport's animal quarantine hall chief, Lukas A. Tonga,
\nsaid Kuwait was a main destination for smuggled Indonesian
\nwildlife because customers there were willing to pay high prices
\nfor the animals.<\/p>\n
In 1999 alone, he said, the airport's security personnel had
\nfoiled four attempts to smuggle animals to Kuwait.<\/p>\n
One Kuwaiti citizen, Haidar, was caught attempting to smuggle
\nout of the country four kukang, a type of marsupial, in a
\nhandbag. While one Al Kazemi was found carrying a long-tailed
\nparakeet and two cockatoos in a wire cage inside a carton.<\/p>\n
\"Also in that same year, we caught a culprit named Odman
\ntrying to smuggle out four mouse deer in a basket,\" Lukas said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a Japanese tourist was arrested at the
\nairport for suspicion of attempting to smuggle a number of
\nprotected animals out of the country. He was freed on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"We did not have strong legal grounds to charge the Japanese
\ncitizen, Oahazi Masayuki, 23, with trying to smuggle out the
\nprotected species,\" airport police chief Adj. Comr. Sri Suari
\nWahyudi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Suari said the Japanese man could not be charged with
\nattempting to smuggle the animals because he carried them out in
\nthe open and made no attempt to hide them.<\/p>\n
\"The question is if those animals are protected by law, why
\nare they sold openly in markets. Tourists must be interested in
\npurchasing them but if they try to take them out of the country
\nthey will face problems,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/animal-smuggling-foiled-at-airport-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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