Munich Airport: Customs officers save an alligator wrapped in foil
Munich Airport
Packed in foil and put in a suitcase – but customs officers save the little albino alligator
A small white alligator survived smuggling at Munich Airport: it was wrapped in foil in a suitcase. They managed to get him back up. But animal smuggling is an extreme problem worldwide.
At Munich Airport, customs officers are also animal rescuers – just like their colleagues at countless other airports worldwide: One of the officials from the passenger of a freed alligator has been nursed back to health by animal keepers. A passenger attempted to smuggle the live albino alligator through airport security on September 25.
As reported by the Munich main customs office, security control employees discovered the alligator when X-raying suitcases. “They immediately informed the customs officials, who found a living white alligator wrapped in cling film when they opened the suitcase,” said customs spokesman Thomas Meister on Thursday.
Together with a veterinarian, the customs officers would have freed the animal and taken over the first aid for the alligator.
The approximately one meter long crocodile was initially in poor health. In a sanctuary for reptiles, it was then nursed back to health. “Now the animal is fine again,” said Master.
Customs has only now published the September discovery so as not to jeopardize the interim investigations into the background to the smuggling. A 42-year-old businessman is said to have taken the animal in his luggage.
Smugglers had to pay security in Munich and were then allowed to continue flying
According to customs, the investigators demanded a high five-digit security payment from him and confiscated the man’s mobile phone. After that he was allowed to travel on to Singapore. The 42-year-old made a stopover in Munich.
According to customs, up to 75,000 euros are paid for such albino alligators in Asia. Criminal proceedings are pending against the 42-year-old for violations of the Species Protection and Animal Welfare Act.
According to customs authorities and animal rights activists, animal smuggling is a very big problem worldwide. Hundreds of animals are discovered every quarter at airports in Germany and Austria alone, as reports from the authorities and press reports show.
Everything that brings in money is smuggled – to be sold alive as pets or to end up as a “delicacy”, such as heavily protected pangolins, which have also recently been repeatedly seized at German airports, either already skinned or fried.
Fried pangolins, severed elephant feet – everything is smuggled
There’s probably little animal suffering that customs officers haven’t encountered, including elephants’ feet being cut off or a tiger cub being carried in luggage and drugged. Customs officers keep freeing chameleons and parrots. In January, for example, officials at Düsseldorf Airport found 93 giant snails, which are believed to end up as a meal. The animals were discovered by the slime trail of one specimen on another luggage trolley packed in pieces of luggage.
Many protected animals sometimes bring in five-digit sums alive. Animal rights activists criticize the unscrupulous trade endangering the existence of entire species.
The smuggling goes well for the small alligator, as recent photos of the white reptile show. At a press event on Thursday, he apparently sat quite relaxed on the hands of a nurse and had himself photographed.
Sources:dpa, Zoll.de, Federal Ministry of Finance in Austria“Nordschleswiger.dk“, “Rheinische Post“