DRI seizes ball pythons, corn snakes at Mumbai airport, one held

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has recovered nine ball pythons and two corn snakes from a man at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, an official said on Friday.

Based on specific intelligence, officials from the Mumbai zonal unit of DRI, the country’s apex anti-smuggling agency, intercepted a man on his arrival at the city airport from Bangkok on Wednesday, the official said.

During an examination of his check-in luggage, officials discovered nine ball pythons (Python regius) and two corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) concealed inside biscuit and cake packets, he said.

The smuggled wildlife was seized under the Customs Act, the official said.

Later, officials from the western region of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in Navi Mumbai identified the reptile species that some people raise as exotic pets.

Ball pythons and corn snakes are not indigenous species and they were brought here in violation of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and import policy, he said.

The regional deputy director of WCCB has issued a detention-cum-deportation order to send back the snakes to Bangkok for better survival, the official said, adding that the carrier of the snakes has been arrested.