KUALA LUMPUR: Chennai Customs officers recently arrested a woman and another person for smuggling four Siamang gibbons and 52 green iguanas into India.
Chennai Customs Department, in a posting on X, said its Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) had arrested the woman when she arrived at Anna International Airport on a flight from Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
The wildlife, it said, were seized under the Customs Act 1962 and the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
The department said the other person arrested was believed to have been the receiver of the gibbons, an endangered species, and the iguanas.
Chennai Customs chief commissioner Manayathara Mathew Jolly said the woman and the individual suspected to be the intended recipient of the wildlife are currently being held in remand.
"The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has recommended providing food and water for the exotic species.
"Have been returned to their country of origin, and further investigation is ongoing," he said.
This is the third reported interception of smuggling attempts from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai in the past month.
On Oct 8, the Chennai Customs Department seized 3,220 electronic cigarettes, two iPhone 16s, and two gold chains weighing 700g, valued at 10.2 million rupees (RM520,000) which were brought by four people arriving from Kuala Lumpur.
On Sept 27, the department seized nearly 5,000 turtles brought by passengers from Kuala Lumpur, which included 4,967 red-eared sliders and 19 albino red-eared sliders, according to the department.
A month earlier, Customs officers also put a stop to smuggling going the other way when they seized 778 Indian star tortoises from the luggage of a passenger headed to Kuala Lumpur.