KARACHI: Customs authorities have foiled a bid to smuggle dead turtles and seized over 4,000 dried body parts of Indian narrow-headed softshell turtles, an endangered reptile, at Karachi port from a Hong Kong-bound consignment.
This was disclosed during a press conference jointly addressed by a customs official and a Sindh wildlife conservator at the Pakistan International Container Terminal on Thursday.
Customs Additional Collector Irfan Javed revealed that the value of a turtle is over Rs150,000 in the black market. He said that the consignment of 4,342 dried turtles weighing about 1.90 tonnes belonged to the M/S Hongda Trading Company (with National Tax Number 4130559) that had a registered DHA (Phase-V) address. The goods had been declared as dried fish maw (dried form of fish air bladder) and dried fish skin and were destined for Cheong House, 139-Des Voeux, West Hong Kong, China, he added.
