Customs foils wildlife smuggling

November 11, 2017

Authorities have intercepted wildlife species contained in outbound parcels at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Friday, the Bureau of Customs said on Saturday. The seven packages bound for Taiwan via China Airlines CI-704 loads 123 Chinese Soft Shell Turtles mixed with live eels. "It was through profiling and manual examination of the Export Division that the bureau was able to intercept the shipment of 3H Enterprises Ltd.," said Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena. NAIA reported that the shipper's address is at 97 Panginay Guguinto Bulacan and the consignee is Jan Birt Co. Ltd. with address at 1F-1, No. 178, Sec. 1 Zhengxiao E. Rd., Zhongsheng Dist., Taipei City Taiwan. The turtles, which came from Pampanga, have no required permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR). "These turtles aside from being endemic to China and Taiwan can also be farmed. They are usually harvested for food and folk remedy tonics, however, it is a regulated export, a permit from DENR must be secured first prior to exportation," NAIA District Collector Ramon Anquilan said. DENR is still determining the market value of the turtles. Meanwhile, BOC's Enforcement and Security Service operatives in coordination with the DENR and other Customs offices intercepted outbound wildlife species. On October 26, a package bound for Sweden declared to contain sweet pastries but was found to contain one pit vipers, four Philippine cobra and 10 sailfin lizards was seized. Documents indicated a certain Waldemar Timotheus of Sjobo, Sweden as consignee and a certain Arvin Tuyay of 51st Leonor St., San Pablo City, Laguna as the shipper. On October 30, another parcel containing seven pit vipers bound to China was intercepted after x-ray examination. The parcel was shipped by a certain James Ryan Salcedo of SAAC New Road, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu and consigned to certain Li Sheng with foreign address at Guandong Province in China. All wildlife specimens were properly turned over to the DENR. DMS