TN: Star tortoises seized from air passenger

Chennai, July 30: Customs officials seized 320 star tortoises from a Colombo-bound passenger at the Anna International Airport here early today.

Customs sources said suspicion was aroused when they started scanning the baggage belonging to Nainar Mohammed (32) of Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu who came to catch the Chennai-Colombo Air-Lanka Flight.

On examination of the baggage, they found the star tortoises worth about Rs seven lakh.

Preliminary enquiry showed he attempted to smuggle the tortoises to Kuala Lumpur via Colombo.

UNI