Lizards Hidden in Socks Lead to Smuggling Arrest in Tokyo

Tokyo, Aug. 12 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have arrested a Mexican national on suspicion of attempting to smuggle nine lizards into Japan by hiding them in socks in his luggage. Daniel Isaac Velasco Baltazar, 23, is suspected of attempting to import the lizards from South Korea without declaring them to customs at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. He has admitted the allegations. The nine were terrestrial arboreal alligator lizards, whose international trade is restricted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. Tokyo Customs officers, inspecting his luggage, found 200 lizards hidden in 22 pairs of socks, with one of them dead, according to the police. The suspect told investigators that he had bought the lizards in Mexico for about 560 to 750 yen each. Terrestrial arboreal alligator lizards, which inhabit mountainous areas of Mexico, are rarely distributed in Japan and sell for about 100,000 yen each, according to the police. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]