Claimant of smuggled spiders from Poland nabbed
ALERT agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport [BoC-NAIA] arrested a claimant of smuggled imported spiders from Poland found in mails when he tried to claim the postal envelope at the Central Mail Exchange Center [CMEC] yesterday [09 Dec. 2021].
BoC-NAIA CMEC sub-port collector Mark Almase in his report to District collector Mimel Talusan, said a shipment of spiders was concealed in a postal envelope with scraps of paper and declared as “origami” from Poland that arrived last November 22, 2021.
Almase said with the help of X-ray scanning and thorough physical examination, the shipment was found to contain 10 pieces of smuggled imported spiders by BOC Personnel with an estimated value of P75,000.
Upon claiming the mail with smuggled spider, the consignee from Olongpo City was arrested by the authorities for violation of Section 1401 in relation to Section 117 of RA 10863 also known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act [CMTA] and RA 9147 otherwise known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act. The claimant has been turned over to the Philippine National Police for inquest proceedings.
The seized spiders were immediately turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit [DENR-WTMU] pursuant to Customs Administrative Order No. 10-2020.
Talusan assured the public of the Port’s continuous efforts against the smuggling of illegal wildlife. She also lauded the unwavering efforts of her men and women personnel that led to the seizure of 10 wildlife seizures for 2021.
To date a total of 1,010 wildlife species have been intercepted by the Port. Among these were species such as beetles, tarantulas, centipedes and ornithoctonus black spiders.
It was learned that Customs NAIA has also been recognized by DENR for its wildlife protection initiatives for three [3] consecutive years and by different international organizations like Traffic Southeast Asia for intercepting illegal wildlife trade in 2019 Talusan added.
