MUMBAI: A passenger smuggling dozens of venomous vipers was stopped after flying into the financial capital Mumbai from Thailand, Indian customs officials said.

The snakes, which inclu­ded 44 Indonesian pit vip­ers, were “concealed in checked-in baggage”, Mu­­mbai Customs said in a statement on Sunday. “An Indian national arriving from Thailand was arrested,” it added.

The passenger, details of whom were not released, also had three Spider-tai­led horned vipers — which are venomous, but usually only target small prey such as birds — as well as five Asian leaf turtles.

Mumbai Customs issued photographs of the seized snakes, including blue and yellow reptiles squirming in a bucket. The snakes are a relatively unusual seizure in Mumbai, with customs officers more regula­rly posting pictures of hauls of smuggled gold, cash, cannabis or pills of suspected cocaine swallowed by passengers.

However, in February, customs officials at Mumbai airport also stopped a smuggler with five Siamang gibbons, a small ape native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Those small creatures, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, were “ingeniously concealed” in a plastic crate placed inside the passenger’s trolley bag, customs officers said.

In November, customs officers seized a passenger carrying a wriggling live cargo of 12 turtles, and a month before, four hornbill birds, all on planes arriving from Thailand.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2025