Chennai: Proverbially, the tortoise may have beaten the hare, but for this smuggler who tried to 'hare it', the turtles landed him in the slammer. Salim Syed Meera (43), had arrived at the airport with two large suitcases to fly to Bangkok on AirAsia flight FD 2654 at 10.30 pm, on Friday night.
A little before he needed to clear security and have his baggage screened, a CISF constable noticed that he was constantly patting his bags. "They thought that he may have some contraband inside and so asked him to scan his baggage in a separate counter. At this time, he left the bags and tried to make a run for it, but our men caught him quite easily," said a CISF officer.
When they opened up his bags, they were a little surprised to find that 18 large black pond turtles (species name Melanochelys) crawling from inside clothes that were wrapping them. "We initimated the forest department and did some basic interrogation. Any animal trafficking is banned so it does not matter to us if it is endangered or not," he added.
01/03/14 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express
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A little before he needed to clear security and have his baggage screened, a CISF constable noticed that he was constantly patting his bags. "They thought that he may have some contraband inside and so asked him to scan his baggage in a separate counter. At this time, he left the bags and tried to make a run for it, but our men caught him quite easily," said a CISF officer.
When they opened up his bags, they were a little surprised to find that 18 large black pond turtles (species name Melanochelys) crawling from inside clothes that were wrapping them. "We initimated the forest department and did some basic interrogation. Any animal trafficking is banned so it does not matter to us if it is endangered or not," he added.
01/03/14 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express
