South African police seize more than 100 scorpions hidden in luggage – National
South African police have arrested a 28-year-old man after discovering that he was smuggling 150 scorpions at the Cape Town airport, the police said in a statement on Saturday.
The suspect had hidden poisonous arachnids, which were alive, among his clothes packed in his suitcase, according to the police.
The suspect was arrested on Friday after the police explained his description and arrested him at the airport.
“He was arrested under the Nature and Environmental Ordinance Act, for possessing a wild animal,” the statement said, without naming the man or revealing where he was.
He is expected to appear in court on Monday, she said.
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A photo of the scorpions shared by authorities shows them individually wrapped in plastic. The scorpions have since been handed over to the “paper” for safekeeping, the police said.
This is not the only incident of wildlife trafficking in South Africa. Last year, six people were arrested there in connection with a global rhino horn trafficking network said to be worth $14 million, the BBC reported.
Wildlife trafficking can also have a negative impact on ecosystems, and efforts to combat it often focus on preserving the country’s rich biodiversity.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on wildlife trafficking in South Africa, “groups are constantly intensifying their brutal methods to control wildlife to satisfy foreign markets, while also corrupting other government officials and procedures aimed at protecting wildlife resources.”
“The criminal industry involved in the wildlife trade runs multi-billion dollar operations around the world, and its criminal enterprises themselves will not stop without strong and sustained intervention,” it continued.
Trafficking of rhino horns in South Africa increased by more than 210 percent between 2010 and 2016, the report found, and also showed an increase in the killing of domestic rhinos.
The issue is not unique to South Africa. Last June, customs officials in India stopped and arrested a passenger on a flight from Thailand after they said he was caught smuggling dozens of venomous and other small snakes into the busy city of Mumbai.
The venomous snakes, including 44 from Indonesia, were “concealed in the imported baggage,” Mumbai Customs said in a post at the time.
Officials say the passenger also hid three spider-tailed snakes – venomous snakes that mainly target small animals such as birds – and five Asian tortoises.
In February last year, agents in Mumbai stopped a smuggler who was carrying five gibbons, a species of small, endangered monkey native to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
A 2024 report on wildlife trafficking by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that “global crime and the level of wildlife crime remain high.”
The capture from 2015 to 2021 shows “illegal trade in 162 countries and regions affecting about 4,000 species of plants and animals,” of which 3,250 are included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
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