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A ring of individuals who illegally smuggled endangered wildlife, including cobras and alligators, has been caught by the prosecution. They brought the animals in by tying their mouths and feet and hiding them in their underwear, and it appears that many animals died during the process.
Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the details.
[Reporter]
Plastic baskets are densely packed on a shelf inside a cramped gosiwon (studio apartment).
When the baskets are opened, everything from lizards to various reptiles emerges, along with several endangered pythons appearing from all over.
In another villa located near an elementary school, large reticulated pythons as well as Chinese alligators, which are Class 1 internationally endangered species, were discovered.
Venomous cobras were also found in a different apartment.
The prosecution apprehended a ring that illegally brought in and sold 200 wild animals 14 times from Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand between November 2023 and August of the following year.
They used smuggling methods such as tightly packing crocodiles with their mouths and feet bound, putting baby turtles into metal cookie tins, and hiding some inside their underwear.
The prosecution believes that a large number of endangered animals died during this process.
They sold the animals on internet reptile cafes using the slang terms dolls or figures, with prices ranging from hundreds of thousands of won to tens of millions of won per animal.
An incident in August the year before last, when a saltwater crocodile carcass was discovered in Sacheon and caused controversy, was found to have been backed by this smuggling ring.
[Kim Dong-won / Prosecutor, Criminal Division 2, Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office: Recently, wildlife sighting incidents have been occurring, such as an alligator being found in the Soyang Stream in Yeoju or a snake invading a home in Yangju. We confirmed that a smuggling organization was behind these events....]
The 95 wild animals seized by the prosecution are currently all under protection at the National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province.
As you can see, 40 endangered species, including the Chinese alligator, were included.
The prosecution has arrested the 20-something mastermind and indicted four accomplices.
(Camera: Joo Beom | Video Editing: Jung Sung-hoon | Footage provided by: Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office)
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