Man caught smuggling 120 tortoises

7th June 2009

Polish customs officers arrested a Ukrainian man on Tuesday for attempting to smuggle 121 tortoises into the country.

The animals, which are a threatened species, were bound so tightly in masking tape that their heads could barely squeeze out from their shells, customs spokeswoman Malgorzata Eisenberger told AP.

The Central Asian tortoises were headed for markets in Poland where they can fetch up to PLN 200 each, a price much higher than that in the Ukraine, Eisenberger said, adding that the animals were to be sold as pets.

They were discovered by a customs sniffer dog, bound in tape and stuffed inside a petrol tank that had been converted by the 34-year-old owner.

He now faces up to ...