C
Cao Pi
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Wednesday December 22, 2010
Reptiles escape the cooking pot
By G.C. TAN
[email protected]
BUKIT KAYU HITAM: Over 1,800 endangered reptiles meant for the cooking pot were rescued by the Customs Department here.
Acting on a tip-off, the department personnel seized 475 hill tortoises, 437 freshwater tortoises, 710 monitor lizards and 196 cobras and king cobras from a lorry that was parked near the Malaysia-Thai duty free zone at about 6.40am on Monday.
The reptiles were kept inside blue sacks, plastic bags and plastic baskets and were hidden between heaps of empty fruit baskets and 20 boxes of sawn logs meant for carving.
Senior Customs officer Husin Ahmad looking at one of the two giant Hill Tortoises seized by the department during a press conference on seizure of exotic wildlife and reptiles at the department store at Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah
State Customs director Ishak Ahmad said the lorry had passed through the Malaysian immigration checkpoint and had queued to enter the Thai checkpoint that opened at 7am.
“We believe the reptiles that weighed 4,300kg were bound for restaurants that sell exotic dishes.
“The smugglers thought they could fool us by hiding the reptiles in the front part of the lorry and loading the empty fruit baskets and logs behind,” he told reporters at the Customs store here yesterday.
Ishak said the department laid an ambush at the lorry that was left unattended.
“We moved in after two hours when there was no sight of the driver or conductor,” he said, adding that it was the biggest seizure of wildlife by the department this year.
The lorry, the reptiles worth RM24,000, and the 20 boxes with sawn logs worth RM6,000, would be handed over to the state Wildlife and National Parks Department for further action, he said.
