Airport authorities foil animal smuggling attempt

Airport authorities foil animal smuggling attempt

JAKARTA (JP): Soekarno-Hatta International Airport officials
have foiled an attempt to smuggle a collection of reptiles,
pythons, monitors and turtles out of the country, an official
said on Thursday.

Airport quarantine director Lukas A. Tonga said the animals
had been packed in an unlocked bag, which was about to be loaded
onto Garuda Indonesia flight 830, scheduled to depart for
Singapore at 5:05 p.m. on Tuesday.

"The loaders became suspicious of the bag's contents after
they detected something moving inside, so they reported it to the
airport's security guards," Lukas said.

The quarantine office, which received the report over two
hours later, was informed by airport security that the owner
could not be arrested since he was already on board the plane, he
explained.

One of Lukas' subordinates, Gabriel Hayon, quoted the airport
officers as saying that the owner of the bag was identified as
Leong Kok Tieng, who held a Malaysian passport with the number A
6105296.

"His identity was traced from the baggage tag," Gabriel told
The Jakarta Post.

He was not certain why airport officers could not ask Tieng to
get off the plane for questioning.

"This is not only about smuggling and damaging our country's
environment. The owner could also be charged for endangering
other people's lives since he was carrying dangerous animals,
like pythons, in an unlocked bag on a plane," Gabriel said.

"With the absence of a padlock, the bag could have opened at
anytime and the animals could have escaped and bitten one of the
passengers on board," he explained.

According to Lukas, all of the animals, most of which were
young, were kept in separate cardboard and plastic boxes and
cloth pouches inside the bag.

"The bag is just like an ordinary sports bag," Gabriel added.

The boxes inside the bag contained 10 pythons -- including
five green pythons, which are a protected species -- a Papuan
tree boa, a King cobra, two monitors, two dry land turtles, two
small porcupines, 46 lizards and three frogs, Lukas said.

Gabriel said some of the snakes and lizards had died while
being kept in the quarantine office.

"We hope the case can be quickly resolved so we can send them
to Taman Safari park (in Cisarua) soon. The protected species
will be sent to the Forest Protection and Nature Conservation
Directorate," he said, after saying he was worried about properly
feeding the animals.

Lukas said he believed the animals had been collected by the
Malaysian from areas in the eastern part of Indonesia, where they
were worth as much as Rp 10 million.

"But they could be sold abroad for about Rp 100 million," he
said.

The illegal export and trade of such animals is forbidden
under Law No. 5/1990 for natural resources and ecosystem
conservation and Law No. 16/1992 for fish, animal and plant
quarantine.

Violators face a maximum sentence of three years in prison and
a Rp 150 million fine. (bsr)