Red panda, monkeys, iguanas among 87 animals found packed in travelers’ luggage at Bangkok airport

Six people were arrested

Six people were arrested at the Bangkok International Airport after allegedly trying to smuggle 87 animals out of Thailand in their luggage.

Five men and one woman, all from India, were smuggling a small zoo, according to the Thai Customs Department.

In their luggage, they had one red panda, 29 lizards, 21 snakes, 15 birds, seven monitor lizards, four iguanas, two red-eyed squirrels, a pair of cotton-top tamarins, two bats, a rat, a fishing cat, a Sulawesi bear cuscus, and some frogs.

You can see a video of all of the recovered animals in the video player at the top of this article.

The animals were discovered by officers who found noticed some oddities when the luggage was X-rayed.

The suspects were booked on a flight to Mumbai.


About the Author

Julie Moreno has worked in local television news for more than 25 years. She came to KSAT as a news producer in 2000. After producing thousands of newscasts, she transitioned to the digital team in 2015. She writes on a wide variety of topics from breaking news to trending stories and manages KSAT’s daily digital content strategy.

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