BENGALURU: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence busted a dried sea horse smuggling racket by arresting three persons from Tamil Nadu along with 6,626 sea horses at the Kempegowda International Airport .
Along with this, a smuggling ring involved in the illegal trade of dried seahorses has been busted, a DRI official said.
He said that on August 3, DRI officials of the city, who were active at Terminal 1 of the Kempegowda International Airport, arrested three persons on a tip-off.
6,626 (dried) seahorses were found in the luggage of the suspects who were traveling via Mumbai to Singapore on a private airline flight. This is the biggest smuggling in recent times and three passengers have been arrested and are being interrogated. The official said that all of them are from Tamil Nadu.
Sale, purchase and any kind of use of seahorses of all species is prohibited in India and is a punishable offense under the Wildlife (Protection) Act. A key figure in the smuggling operation was arrested after an operation on August 4. DRI officials said that he played an important role in transporting the captive seahorses to Singapore.
Demand for dried seahorses is high in Southeast Asian markets. He said that dried seahorses are used there for traditional medicine, cooking, ornamental purposes for aquariums and others.
