Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Customs seize shark fins, foreign currency

Chennai: Customs officials at Chennai airport on Monday seized 14kg of shark fins worth Rs 8 lakh from a passenger bound for Singapore. The passenger was arrested.
The seizure, the first by the airport customs, assumes importance as Chennai was identified as a hub for illegal export of shark fins around five years ago by the Zoological Survey of India and Humane Society International. Export of shark fins is prohibited as per the foreign trade policy. Fins are cut from live sharks leaving them to die at the bottom of the sea, officials said. The fins are used for a costly soup delicacy in China. Customs officials said they had intelligence reports about smuggling of prohibited wildlife species to Singapore and Malaysia via Scoot airline.

On the lookout for smugglers, officials zeroed in on a male passenger with a big carton in the departure area. They watched his movements through the CCTV cameras for a while, and finding something suspicious, they took him in. He was identified as Mohamed Saleem, 54, bound for Singapore via Scoot Airlines flight TR 579. Customs officials questioned him, when he was evasive, they opened the carton and his checked-in baggage. Inside the carton, they found two white gunny bags stuffed with shark fins.

Also found were two brown paper bags with assorted foreign currencies — 6,000 US dollars, 27,600 euros, 1,000 Norwegian kroners, 3,400 Canadian dollars, 2,450 British pounds sterlings, 1,4000 Qatar rials, together worth Rs 33 lakh. The fins and the currency were seized under the Customs Act, 1962. Wild Life Crime Control Bureau officials certified the shark fins.
22/01/19 Times of India
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