UK REUTERS (UK) 16 September 03 Passenger caught with 499 tortoises in luggage
Singapore: Singapore has charged an Indian national for trading in endangered wildlife after finding 499 live star tortoises in his carry-on luggage, the latest sign of growing Asian trade in illegal animals.
The 28-year-old man had tried to smuggle the tortoises from Chennai in southern India but was caught on Monday at Singapore's main international airport, said an official at the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore.
He was promised S$100 (36 pounds) for smuggling the star-striped animals, which have a street value of about S$30,000, the AVA said on Tuesday. The tortoises were handed over to the Singapore Zoo.
Singapore, a regional air and shipping hub, is a transit point in growing trafficking in illegal wildlife between the United States and parts of Asia such as India and Indonesia.
Four wildlife smuggling syndicates have been identified in Singapore and authorities confiscated animals worth S$300,000 in the first five months of 2003, compared with S$65,000 for all of last year, the AVA said.
"As long as there is money to be made in this, there is always going to be this problem," said AVA spokesman Goh Shih Young.
Exotic birds such as the Moluccan cockatoo, a highly endangered species, are among the most common animals smuggled from Indonesia, while tortoises, often crammed into cotton bags and stuffed into boxes, are usually smuggled from India.
The tortoises, a popular pet, are sometimes fed in Singapore before being shipped out again, often to the United States. But authorities also report a local market for exotic animals. A scorpion can fetch S$100, for example, and a cockatoo S$1,000.
People found guilty of trading in illegal wildlife in Singapore face fines of up to S$5,000 or up to 12 months' jail, or both.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030916/od_uk_nm/oukoe_crime_wildlife_asia_1
PROLOG (Pennsylvania) 16 September 03 Indian caught with 499 "star" possesions in carry-on luggage
Photo at URL
Singapore (AFP) - Singapore authorities have nabbed an Indian national who flew in from Madras with 499 endangered star tortoises stuffed in his carry-on luggage, media reports said Tuesday.
Immigration officers at Changi Airport stopped the 28-year-old man in a routine check on Monday morning, but he tried to escape and and the tortoises were subsequently found in his hand lugagge, the Straits Times reported.
The endangered animals are estimated to be worth about 30,000 Singapore dollars (17,143 US dollars) and are not allowed to be kept as pets in the city state.
Preliminary investigations showed the man agreed to smuggle the live animals in exchange for just 100 dollars, the daily said.
Under the Endangered Species Act in Singapore, a permit is required to import the tortoises and offenders can be fined up to 5,000 dollars and jailed for up to one year.
The star tortoise, which is indigenous to India and listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, gets its name from the stars on a pyramidal hump on its shell.
The illegal stowaways have since been sent to a new home -- the local zoo.
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/al/Qsingapore-india-tortoise.RTuz_DSG.html
