Ivato Airport: 196 turtles seized by border police

Yesterday at dawn, 196 turtles that were about to be embarked in the flight to Nairobi, Kenya, were intercepted, in extremis, by the border police of the Airport. The animals were hidden in a cardboard and 3 large suitcases. Cargo-handlers were about to put them in the hold of the aircraft when a strange noise from inside the packages attracted their attention. After that, the latter decided immediately to get the luggage back onto the tarmac. Border police took the suspected items through cargo scanners. Big surprise! The suitcases and the cardboard were completely full of small turtles endemic to Madagascar.

It is then later reported that a blue pick-up belonging to the loading service had been seen approaching the aircraft and dropped them. The head of border police, Brunel Razafintsiandraofa, stated that “the smugglers have found a way to get their luggage directly onto the runway”. Hence, the 3 suitcases and the cardboard did not go through the checkpoints in the departure lounge.

The owners of the luggage, at that period, were already seated peacefully on board. The small tickets attached to their luggage, however, helped the police to identify them. Two persons, an Indian national, who is suspected as being the brains of the operation and his Malagasy accomplice, were apprehended by the police. The seized turtles were being recovered into the hands of the authority in charge of Environment. According to the Minister of Environment, the 2 smugglers will be charged for trafficking species of animals prohibited for exportation and legal proceedings on the case are already underway.