A man was detained at a Tokyo airport when officials discovered almost 200 lizards tucked into 22 pairs of socks in his suitcase, according to reports.
According to The Times of India, when the 23-year-old Mexican guy landed at Haneda Airport from South Korea on August 8, customs agents discovered the reptiles stashed in his luggage.
Authorities discovered the lizards in socks inside the luggage. According to the outlet, one of the animals had died before the luggage was opened.
The reptiles included nine Mexican alligator lizards, which are endangered and have international trading limitations, according to The Times of India.
The man allegedly informed police that he purchased the lizards in Mexico for around $3.50 to $4.70 each.
According to accounts, some of the reptiles can fetch as much as $630 each in Japan.
According to Keith Jeffries, vise president of K2 Security Screening Group and former federal security director at Los Angeles International Airport, financial incentives might lead to extraordinary smuggling attempts.”If there’s a market for it, people will try to smuggle it,” said Jeffries, who is headquartered in Orlando.”We’ve seen this many times before,” he said. “It happens more frequently than any of us would like.”
According to Jeffries, airport screening techniques differ depending on the agency involved and the types of forbidden items police are entrusted with identifying.
TSA officers in the US focus on detecting threats to aviation security, such as firearms and explosives, rather than targeting illegal wildlife or drugs, according to the source.”The TSA security directives do not look for items solely for smuggling purposes,” Jeffries explained. “They look for guns, knives, explosives, incendiary devices — and it’s very specific and narrow to that.”
However, Jeffries noted that wildlife smuggling attempts are not uncommon.
During his time with the TSA, he recalls situations involving exotic turtles and another event in which over 100 exotic birds were discovered inside checked luggage arriving from abroad.
The discovery of the 200 lizards came only weeks after another bag containing wildlife products was confiscated at a United States airport.
Fox News Digital previously reported that a US Customs and Border Protection agriculture detector dog assisted agents in discovering roughly 100 pounds of banned meat, plants, and wildlife items in luggage traveling from Thailand.
K-9 Maisy alerted police to the luggage, which contained 50 pounds of meat, including raw meat, as well as 33 pounds of mangoes, garlic, bamboo, banana plants, and about 16 pounds of Bengal monitor lizard, according to CBP.
The monitor lizard was taken into custody by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
CBP agriculture specialists screen foreign luggage for prohibited items that could introduce pests, livestock diseases, or exotic species into the United States.
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