Herper.com: Reptiles and Amphibians

Reptiles and Amphibians in the News

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Turtle Eggs Poached

Brunei officials seized 2900 turtle eggs poached and smuggled in from another country. (News source.)

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Thai Smuggling

Two wildlife smugglers were caught in Thailand trying to ship out over 1,000 snakes and tortoises to China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. (News source.)

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Turtle Egg Smuggling

Brunei Customs confiscated 8500 turtle eggs that were being smuggled into the country. (News source.)

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Saturday, June 7, 2008

Smuggling INTO Indonesia

Most smuggling of snakes involving the US means the reptiles are heading into the country, but a package of six boas was confiscated when it was sent to Indonesia. The boas included several high-dollar morphs. The smuggling was wrong, no doubt, but whoever (the wildlife officers or the newspaper) is saying the animals are "endangered" clearly has no clue. (News source.)

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Chelonian News

168 smuggled tortoises were seized by police in Bihar, India. (News source.)

16 sea turtles were rehabilitated and released here.

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Fighting Egg Smuggling

Malaysian Customs in Sabah are increasing efforts to fight sea turtle egg smugglers. 1,500 eggs were confiscated this month. (News source.)

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Saturday, May 24, 2008

Tortoise Smugglers Caught

Five tortoise smugglers were captured in a police raid in Uttar Pradesh, India. (News source.)

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Gecko Smuggling Attempt

Australian officials confiscated a package of geckos that was being sent to the Czech Republic. (News source.)

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Vietnam Smuggling

Vietnam officials intercepted a ton of live monitor lizards headed for China. (News source.)

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Black Market Tortoises

Here is an article on a black market in Bangkok with very rare tortoises.

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Smuggler Sentenced

A Mexican man was sentenced to 16 months in prison and 3 years supervised release by a US federal court for smuggling sea turtle products. (News source.)

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Lizard Smuggling

3000 chameleons and 350 other lizards were confiscated from two men at a Yemen airport. (News source.)

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Snake Smuggler Fined

An Australian man was fined $15,000 for attempting to take 10 cornsnakes and two Burmese pythons through an airport. The snakes, of course, were destroyed. (They couldn't take $100 of the fine and send the snakes back out of country?) (News source.)

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Smuggled in Books

A couple of packages intercepted in the mail from Australia to the Czech Republic turned out to hold hollowed-out books with native Australian geckos. (News source.)

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Smuggling Beardies

A Dutch passenger was caught trying to smuggle 16 small bearded dragons through an airport in Spain. No word on where they came from. (News source.)

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Sunday, April 6, 2008

Herp Crimes

The UK mastermind of an illegal tortoise smuggling ring has been charged. (News source.)

A couple of snakes were stolen from Flamingo Gardens in Florida. (News source.)

A woman who stole a young boa constrictor from a Michigan pet shop has returned the snake. (News source.)

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Thursday, April 3, 2008

Python Smuggling

A Victoria, Australia, man is charged with smuggling four "endangered" pythons in from South Africa. (The news report states they are believed to be green tree pythons -- which aren't native to South Africa.) And, of course, the idiots in customs there plan to destroy the snakes. (News source.)

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Friday, March 7, 2008

Tortoise Smuggling

A crate of 9 tortoises were confiscated in Israel, apparently having been smuggled in (possibly just a waystop on their way elsewhere). (News source.)

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Venom Smuggling

Bangladesh officers arrested four traders with 12 lbs of cobra venom. It appeared to have been smuggled into the area. The traders were trying to sell it locally. (News source.)

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Smugglers and Poachers

Pakistani wildlife officers found a partially skinned crocodile (protected) along a road in DHA. It was uncertain whether the reptile had been hunted in the wild or stolen from a breeding center. (News source.)

Two tortoise smugglers were shot and killed, three others got away, in an encounter with police in India. (News source.)

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Madagascar Tortoise Smuggling

Here's a BBC News article on the capture of a Nigerian smuggler who was found with 300 tortoises from Madagascar, and a general review of the problem.

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Smuggler Indicted

A Chico, CA, man and an unknown conspirator in Singapore have been indicted in federal court for trafficking in smuggled tortoises. (News source.)

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Friday, January 4, 2008

Sea Turtle Smuggler in Court

A Chinese national pleaded guilty in US Federal Court to smuggling hawksbill sea turtle shells (and items made from the shells). (News source.)

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Tortoise Smuggling

657 star tortoises were discovered being smuggled through Chennai airport. (News source.)

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Croc News

The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust has hatched six Cuvier's dwarf caiman, the first time for that species in South Asia. (News source.)

The Taiwanese veterinarian who lost his arm to a crocodile has had it reattached. (News source.)

A Russian crocodile smuggler was caught red-handed at the Cairo International Airport with baby crocs, turtles, and lizards. He was deported, and the animals confiscated. (News source.)

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Smuggling to Ireland

A package of various common pet-store arachnids and herps from a US pet shop was confiscated by Irish customs. The package was labeled "aquatic plants." (News source.)

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Tortoise Product Smugglers

Punjab, Pakistan, wildlife officials confiscated 26 cartons of smuggled tortoise meat and 5 bags of shells. (News source.)

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Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Smuggler Pleads Guilty

A San Francisco pet shop owner has plead guilty to smuggling baby Fly River turtles from Australia. (News source.)

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Smuggled Reptiles

6 Bangledeshi nationals were arrested for possession (on the wrong side of the India border, it looks like) of 10 endangered reptiles: king cobras and elongated tortoises. (News source.)

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Hong Kong Herp Crimes

First, two men and a woman were arrested for selling mislabeled crocodile meat, punishable by up to 5 years in jail and a $500,000 fine. Monitor lizard and snake meat is often sold as crocodile meat. (News source.)

A smuggler was caught bringing in 15 snakes and 22 lizards from Indonesia, mostly baby pythons and monitors. (News source.)

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Tortoise Smuggler

A Tampa, FL, pet shop owner pleaded guilty to charges in a smuggling racket involving Burmese and Indian star tortoises. (News source.)

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Thursday, October 4, 2007

Smuggler Pleads Guilty

A Southern California man is pleading guilty to smuggling rare Asian chelonians into the country. (News source)

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Singapore vs Smuggling

Singapore officers are being trained to identify rare reptiles, in an effort to stop the black market trade through that country. (News source.)

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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fiji Smuggling

A California man was charged with smuggling endangered Fiji iguanas inside his prosthetic leg. (News source.)

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Thursday, September 6, 2007

India: Frog Smugglers

3000 frogs were recovered from an Assam smuggling operation. Other wildlife are also in peril from rising smuggling threats. (News source.)

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Friday, August 31, 2007

Chinese Turtle Smuggling

Hong Kong police caught two men trying to smuggle 7000 hatchling turtles into China. The species named were North American, none endangered. (News source.)

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Monday, August 27, 2007

Judge Halts Guilty Plea

A Federal judge has halted a guilty plea by a turtle smuggler, on the grounds that the Alabama district court may not have jurisdiction, as the man never left Louisiana. (News source.)

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Turtle Smuggler

A Florida man has pled guilty to smuggling protected Alabama redbelly turtles into Mississippi. (News source.)

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Sunday, August 12, 2007

Saudi Smuggler Caught

A 22-year-old Saudi university student was caught trying to smuggle small reptiles, including chameleons, cobras, and baby crocodiles out of Egypt. (News source.)

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Malaysian Smuggled Turtle Eggs

A Malaysian was caught smuggling 1,498 turtle eggs into Borneo. No species given. (News source.)

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Smuggling Charges

Three people from Louisiana and Florida plead not guilty to charges of smuggling rare turtles. (News source.)

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Monday, July 2, 2007

Smuggled Star Tortoises

Malaysia has a loophole in its wildlife laws, apparently, which allows star tortoises, smuggled in from India, to be sold in pet stores. The stores claim they are captive-bred; this is disputed by wildlife officials, but without proof they can't confiscate. (News source.)

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Tortoise Smuggling

A shipment of "clay pots" from Tanzania to Malaysia turned out to be 76 baby leopard tortoises. The smuggled reptiles have been confiscated and are awaiting probable return to Africa. (News source.)

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Australia Kills Smuggled Reptiles

Packages of garden gnomes and pottery hiding live snakes and lizards have been intercepted by Australian customs. The smuggled reptiles came from Britain. All were killed due to "quarantine." (News source.)

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Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Turkish Tortoise Smuggling

Turkish police caught a foreign citizen attempting to smuggle 8 endangered tortoises (species unnamed) out of the country. (News source.)

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Snakes Confiscated in Israel

Someone apparently tried to smuggle some African reptiles and invertebrates (including a number of venomous snakes) to a zoo in the country of Georgia. Israeli customs agents confiscated them at the Ben Gurion International Airport. (News source.)

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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Smuggled Tortoises Intercepted

India's Border Security Force intercepted a group of elongated tortoises being smuggled from Bangladesh into India. They were found in a sack hanging under a bridge. (News source.)

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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Snakes Smuggled into South Africa

South Africa's environmental management inspectors (the Green Scorpions) confiscated a shipment of 13 venomous snakes from the Czech Republic. The snakes were smuggled inside video cassettes. The species noted aren't particularly uncommon in captivity: "three albino monocle cobras, found in southern Asia, three Arabian or Palestinian saw-scaled vipers, two Nubian spitting cobras and two taipans." The taipans were a PNG subspecies. Investigation is ongoing. (News source.)

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Snake Smuggling

Custom officials at Cairo, Egypt, stopped a man who was trying to smuggle about 700 live snakes into Saudi Arabia as pets and store displays. Species aren't noted, except to state that two were cobras. (News source.)

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