Philippine police found 1,500 duct-taped turtles

The Philippine police have found more than 1500 turtles, duct-taped in luggage, at Manila airport (BBC reports). The wrapped turtles were found in four pieces of luggage which were unclaimed. The turtles were packed into boxes and then placed inside boxes.

The police are assuming that the bags were abandoned by the carrier when he found that harsh penalties would be given for illegal wildlife trafficking. The punishment includes two years prison and a fine of about 200,000 pesos. The Bureau of Customs said the turtles were abandoned by a Filipino passenger who was onboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Hong Kong.

The turtles are handed over to Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit. The turtle meat is very costly as it is a form of traditional medicine. The seized turtles valued more than 4.5 million pesos (£60,000; $86,631).

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