Gibbons smuggled from Bangkok seized
On Tuesday, customs officers intercepted an Indian flyer and found the animals inside two pet bags concealed in checked-in luggage beneath chocolates and other food items.
The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau officers, who identified the monkeys as an agile gibbon (hylobates agilis) and an eastern grey gibbon (hylobates funereus), provided suitable care.
The monkeys were deported on the same flight back to Thailand, and the flyer was remanded in judicial custody.
Customs sources said that the flyer was a carrier engaged by a smuggler, and further investigation is ongoing to ascertain the latter's identity.
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Customs officials, however, believe that there might be specific demand for these two monkeys, as they seized the same gibbon breeds on June 18 from a flyer who arrived from Thailand. Both gibbon varieties, in high demand in the international pet trade, are endangered. The agile gibbon is on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Sources in WCCB said that as a policy, they must not reveal the value of such species in the illegal pet trade, but added that gibbons are smuggled in high numbers to Chennai and Bengaluru to cater to the demand.
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Previously, customs officers seized four gibbons in March that were smuggled from Kuala Lumpur, but two were found dead. In 2024, customs busted two attempts to smuggle five gibbons.
Meanwhile, customs officers also seized 700g of gold from three different flyers. On June 30, customs officers secured a flyer at the domestic terminal at Chennai airport. He travelled from Dubai to Dhaka, then to Kolkata, and reached Chennai by an Indigo flight. About 409g of gold he had hidden in his rectum was seized.
On Tuesday, a flyer from Singapore was secured for smuggling 150g of gold, and on Wednesday, another flyer from Dubai was caught with another 150g of gold.
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