Customs officials seized 32 Geckoes and Chameleons illegally shipped to the country.
These species are considered to be dangerous as they are said to be carnivorous and could pose a threat to local species of insects etc, Custom’s Director and Spokesman Sunil Jayarathne said.
These dangerous species were concealed in a shipment declared as CPU (Concealed inside the CPU in four bags) and was detected by Customs staff attached to the DHL Courier Services in Katunayake.
The shipment arrived from Australia via Singapore by flight No. SQ 468 at 11.55 pm on June 13. The detection was made by Customs Superintendents Vipula Fernando and S. Ranasinghe.
Speaking to the Daily News, the Customs Director said investigations are in progress to ascertain if there was an involvement of any Customs personnel in this racket, as the shipment had not contained a valid address.
The address provided on the shipping documents was an address in Kalutara, but, it was proved a false address which was revealed when the Customs Officers visited there.
The Customs Director further said that it was recommended that these animals be kept in quarantine and studied further to determine what sort of effect it could have on the local environment, due to the unavailability of quarantine facilities, it had been determined by the quarantine officers to re-export these animals back to Australia.
Investigations are being jointly carried out by the Directorate of Revenue and Services, Katunayake and Bio Diversity Control Unit of Customs under the supervision of Jayalal Fernando, Superintendent of Customs and Buddhila Prabhath, Assistant Superintendent of Customs.
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