Jayapura Quarantine Fails To Smuggle 71 Papuan Endemic Animals

The Jayapura Agricultural Quarantine Team together with Avsec Angkasa Pura Logistics Sentani Airport and Avsec BKO Silas Papare Air Base managed to thwart 71 smuggled reptiles. (HO-Humas Jayapura Agricultural Quarantine)

PAPUA - Jayapura Agricultural Quarantine, Papua, thwarted the smuggling of 71 endemic animals that were to be carried by airplane passengers from the area. Jayapura Agricultural Quarantine Head Muhlis Natsir said the endemic Papuan type of reptile was hidden by airplane passengers in a clothing bag. "The team moved quickly to thwart the smuggling of the animal which was hidden in an unidentified passenger clothing bag at the Sentani Airport departure terminal," he said in his statement in Timika, Antara, Wednesday, July 26. According to Muhlis, this action was thwarted thanks to the collaboration with AVSEC Angkasa Pura Logistics Sentani Airport which knew the contents of the suspicious bag from the monitoring of the Xray device. "Evidence in the form of an unidentified passenger clothing bag containing 28 white bags wrapped in 71 endemic Papuan animals," he said. He explained that the animals were the 41-tailed Green Python (Morelia viridis), one dead, one brown Snake (boiga irigularist) 1, a 4-tailed Biawak Mengrove (varanus indicus). "There are also 15 jobirensis Bawak Necks (varianus jobirensis), 1 tree (varianus cordensis) Biawak, Soa Payung (klamidusaurus kingii)," he said again. The next animal is handed over to the Papua BKSDA as the agency in charge of conservation functions, so that it can be returned to its natural habitat in the wild.

"We will take firm action against illegal actions to provide a deterrent effect for the perpetrators as well as a concrete action to secure the assets and natural resources of Papuan land," he said again.