From unique species like Albino Porcupines to an vintage bronze Buddha statue, Chennai Customs made a number of seizures together with wildlife species, gold, overseas foreign money and medicines within the final one 12 months at Chennai airport.

Between January and December 2022, there have been 11 circumstances the place the Customs officers held passengers who tried to smuggle in wildlife species and 5 individuals had been arrested, in accordance with a press launch. Albino Porcupine, White Lipped Tamarin and Crimson Chested Tamarin Monkey, Leucistic Sugar Glider, De Brazza Monkey, King Snakes, Ball Pythons and Aldabra Tortoises had been discovered inside passenger baggage. The animals which had been introduced into town principally from Bangkok, Thailand, had been detained underneath the Wildlife Safety Act.

“There’s a area of interest crowd within the metropolis which needs to have these unique species as pets at residence. These are costly and these individuals need it at residence. After we seize these animals, we search a clearance from the Wildlife Crime Management Bureau and deport them again on the earliest,” an official mentioned.

Additionally, 12 individuals from locations equivalent to Sharjah, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Nairobi in Kenya and Entebbe in Uganda had been arrested for attempting smuggle heroin, cocaine, methaqualone, ganja and MDMA. A complete of 27.6 kg of narcotics price ₹14.02 crore was seized by officers.

Throughout the identical interval, the Chennai Customs officers have seized 205.8 kg of gold price ₹94.22 crore in 293 circumstances and 97 individuals had been arrested. Officers mentioned most of those circumstances had been from West Asia from international locations equivalent to Dubai, Sharjah and others. There have been 81 circumstances the place they seized overseas foreign money estimated at ₹10.97 crore from passengers and 7 of them had been arrested. Officers mentioned in most of those gold and overseas foreign money circumstances, they intercept passengers via intelligence inputs from their workers. “In some circumstances, we observe the passengers and if we discover something suspicious we make an inquiry and test their baggage,” he added.

Other than these, diamond and different valuable stones price ₹1.26 crore, one bronze vintage Buddha statue, cigarettes, electronics and different items had been seized.