Summary:
By Express News ServiceCHENNAI: Two persons were detained as Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) sleuths of Customs department foiled an attempt to smuggle in juvenile pythons and lizards kept hidden in a plastic toy at Chennai Airport on Thursday morning. On opening the toys, some cloth bags tied with rope were found inside in which some reptiles were concealed. On questioning, they informed that these bags were given to them by someone outside Kuala Lumpur airport with instructions to handover the same to someone outside Chennai airport. They were taken outside the airport but no one turned up to receive the bags even after waiting for a considerable time. They were Green Tree python (Morelia viridis), Scrub Python (Morelia amethistina) both native of Australia and not covered under CITES; two Black Tree Monitor lizard (Varanusbeccarii); five Emerald Tree Monitor Lizard (Varanusprasimus); Two Blue spotted tree monitor lizard (Varanusmacraei); one Reisinger tree Monitor (Varanusreisingeri) and four Sailfin Lizard (Hydrosaurusspecie)..