Mumbai: Exotic animal smuggling racket busted; DRI seizes hundreds of snakes and iguanas from Malaysia

Mumbai: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials have arrested two persons for allegedly smuggling 665 exotic animals including turtles, tortoises, pythons, lizards and Iguana from Malaysia. While 548 animals were found to be alive, the remaining were dead. The consignment, having an estimated market value of Rs 2.98 crore, has been seized by the DRI, sources said on Saturday.

Those arrested have been identified as Dharavi resident Immanvel Raja and Mazgaon resident Victor Lobo.

According to the DRI, specific information was received that a consignment from Malaysia would be arriving at Air Cargo Complex (ACC) at Sahar, on Wednesday night which will contain live exotic animals in the guise of aquarium fishes. The agency officials then intercepted a vehicle at Vile Parle which was carrying the consignment after receiving it from ACC and was headed towards Dharavi.

The vehicle was then taken back to ACC so that the contents of packages could be examined. Upon reaching ACC, all the packages totaling to 30 were unloaded from the vehicle for examination and upon opening few packages of the consignment, it was noticed that there were turtles and other reptile like lizards and pythons in some of the packages hidden under trays over which fishes were kept, sources said.

There were turtles and reptiles, like lizards and pythons, in some of the packages | FPJ

In the absence of expertise to handle the said animals, a team from the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) was called upon for assistance in examination and inventory.

Out of total 30 boxes, 16 boxes were found to contained declared items, that is, different varieties of ornamental fishes and 13 boxes were found to contain a total of 665 animals of different varieties of reptiles and wild animals such as Turtle, Tortoise, Python, Lizard and Iguana and one box was found to be empty.

There were turtles and other reptiles, like lizards and pythons, in some of the packages | FPJ

"Raja in his statement to the DRI has said that he had imported the consignment which contained live animals such as turtles and reptiles from one David Lu of Malaysia and that Lu had instructed to handover the said consignment to one Victor Lobo. Raja also admitted having received cash Rs 9 lakh from Lu through Lobo for clearance of the said consignment. Raja admitted that he was aware that the consignment contained live animals such as turtles and reptiles," said a DRI official.

The agency sources claimed that Lobo in his statement stated that he deleted certain contents of his cell phone and also destroyed the sim when he came to know that the said consignment had been caught. Lobo also admitted having paid Rs 9 lakh to Raja on the directions of Lu. The import of said animals is prohibited under the Customs Act.

Advocate Sujay Kantawala, who appeared as defence lawyer for the two accused, said that his clients were illegally detained.

"Five persons were detained. While some of them were released, two were shown arrested on Saturday morning. If detention is beyond 24 hours, bail is a matter of right. Apart from this, dealing with these alleged exotic species as per DRI allegations, it is also a bailable offence. My clients are innocent. Moreover, the value shown in the panchnama is highly inflated and was not backed by any expert's valuation," argued Kantawala, adding that both his clients were granted bail by the court.