A man was caught smuggling 407 dried endangered seahorses from Macau to the mainland when he was intercepted by customs officers in Zhuhai last month, according to a Gongbei Customs statement yesterday.
According to the statement, the man entered the mainland in a hurry through the “nothing to declare” channel at Zhuhai’s Gongbei Customs checkpoint on March 9.
Customs officers intercepted him and found that the shopping bag he was carrying contained a packet of dried seahorses hidden in a sealed bag, with a net weight of about 300 grams, the statement said.
Upon inspection, the customs officers recently identified the dried seahorses as hedgehog seahorses, sea ponies and spotted seahorses, which are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and are all Class II protected wild animals, the statement said.
41 live cacti in int’l mail
Meanwhile, Gongbei Customs said in a separate statement yesterday that its officers discovered 41 live cactus plants last month, an endangered species, while inspecting international mail.
Gongbei Customs found anomalies during an X-ray inspection of a batch of international mail last month, and found live cacti wrapped in newspaper in one of the packages.
They have been identified as endangered species of the Oreocereus, Escobaria and Echinocereus genera. The cacti are being dealt with in accordance with the official requirements, the statement pointed out.
This undated handout photo provided by the Gongbei Customs yesterday shows 407 undeclared dried endangered seahorses.
This undated handout photo provided by Gongbei Customs yesterday shows endangered cacti discovered in international mail.
