Two Women Arrested By Airport Officers After X-Ray Examination: The Suitcase Contains 50 Lizards, 35 Turtles, 20 Snakes To Hedgehogs And Armadillos

X-ray examination at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand. (Wikimedia Commons/Mattes)

JAKARTA - For whatever reason, two women carried hundreds of live animals of various kinds, including snakes which are clearly prohibited, in their baggage which resulted in them being detained by the authorities at the airport.

A total of 109 animals were found by officers from the two suitcases they brought after an x-ray examination at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and accused of smuggling, Thai officials said.

Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said on Monday the hundreds of wild animals were found in two separate suitcases following the transfer. Wildlife officers were called after the discovery.

After the examination, the results were surprising. Because the animals in the suitcases can't. Starting from two white hedgehogs, two armadillos, 25 turtles, 50 lizards and 20 snakes.

Thai authorities said the suitcases belonged to two Indian women, named Nithya Raja, 38, and Zakia Sulthana Ebrahim, 24, who were about to board a flight to the Indian city of Chennai, citing CNN Travel June 28.

The women have reportedly been charged with violating the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act of 2019, the Animal Diseases Act of 2015 and the Customs Act of 2017.

It is known that the trade in animals through airports has long been an issue in the region. In 2019, a man who arrived in Chennai, India, from Bangkok was reportedly detained at the airport, after customs officials found a one-month-old leopard cub in his luggage.

A March 2022 report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring agency, said more than 70,000 native and exotic wild animals, including body parts or their derivatives, were found in 140 seizures at 18 Indian airports between 2011 and 2020.

"Chennai International Airport, Tamil Nadu, recorded the highest number of wildlife seizure incidents, followed by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai and New Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport," the report said.