Thailand has suspended an airport employee after a passenger sneaked more than 30 live animals, including two baby otters, onto a flight to Taiwan.
When the Thai Vietjet flight landed at Taipei’s Taoyuan airport on Wednesday, the mobile menagerie, which contained 28 baby tortoises and a marmot, was seized.
According to local media, the unexpected cargo was discovered when several of the critters escaped and were discovered crawling around the plane’s cabin.
The animals got through screening due to human error, according to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.
“We examined the CCTV and found that the smugglers were two foreigners who had their luggage scanned through an X-ray machine”, the airport stated late on Thursday in a statement.
“One of the staff was suspicious so they assigned another to open the luggage. However, they didn’t check the luggage and allowed the passengers to go through”, the statement reads.
“The employee who failed to inspect the bag properly was suspended until an investigation was conducted”, the airport added.
Taiwanese authorities claimed they were looking into the two alleged traffickers.
Thailand serves as a key transit point for wildlife smugglers, who frequently export the animals to China and Vietnam.
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