LIMA. – Peruvian authorities have confiscated more than 3 000 tarantulas at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima before they could be smuggled to Germany. The spiders were hidden in used socks in three bags carried by two German citizens and one Polish citizen. The unusual cargo was discovered during a routine inspection by customs officials.
Cora Suarez, a technician at Peru's National Forest and Wildlife Service (Serfor), told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that officials noticed movement in the baggage. The socks apparently began to move as they examined the bags. According to Suarez, there were small and large spiders among the hidden animals.
The tarantulas came from different parts of Peru and were at different stages of development, from eggs and newly hatched juveniles to adult spiders. Suarez says one tarantula can fetch around €500 (approximately R9 700) in Europe. The possible value of the shipment could thus have been around €1.5 million (approximately R29 million).
The three foreigners were taken into custody by the police unit that investigates environmental crimes and will face criminal prosecution, Serfor said. Illegal wildlife trafficking is according to Interpol a global business that generates an estimated 20 billion US dollars annually.
Sources: AFP, The Guardian, The Witness
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
