AUTHORITIES from the Bureau of Customs (BoC) assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested a man for claiming smuggled spiders from Poland.
The suspect, whose name was withheld, was immediately apprehended after claiming the arachnids in Central Mail Exchange Center (CMEC) in Pasay City.
According to BoC-NAIA, the spiders which arrived in Manila on November 22, 2021, were concealed in a postal envelop with 'scraps of paper and declared as origami' and consigned to an addressee from Olongapo City.
It was through x-ray scanning and thorough physical examination that Customs authorities discovered the 10 crawling species which have an estimated value of P75,000.
Authorities said the the claimant violated Section 1401 in relation to Section 117 of RA 10863 also known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and RA 9147 otherwise known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
The wildlife species were later turned over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit.
BoC-NAIA said that up to this date, a total of 1,010 wildlife species have been intercepted by the Port of NAIA.
Among these were species are beetles, tarantulas, centipedes and ornithoctonus black spiders.
Tags: #bocnaia, #smuggledspiders, #centralmailexchangecenter, #endangeredspecies