A Japanese woman was arrested by Australian Border Force for attempting to smuggle 19 lizards out at Melbourne Airport on 23th of April.
27 year-old woman of Japanese national was intended to board a flight to Japan when ABF officers found 17 shingleback lizards and 2 blue tongue lizards wrapped in mesh packages hidden in her suitcase.
She was arrested and charged under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
On 5th February, 46 year-old Japanese was arrested at Sydney Airport and on November 8th last year, a 45 year-old Japanese was arrested in Perth Airport for attempting to smuggle lizards out from Australia.
ABF Investigations Commander Graeme Grosse said “thanks to information provided by our international colleagues, we’ve now been able to foil three smuggling attempts across three states, all linked to the same syndicate.”
Source: Australia Border Force press release.
