Chennai customs seizes exotic live spiders sent from Poland

CHENNAI:

Customs

officials at Chennai airport have seized

exotic live spiders

and drugs.

Based on information, Chennai air customs intercepted a postal parcel which arrived at the foreign post office from

Poland

, said an official release on Thursday said. The parcel was addressed to a person at Gajulaka in Andhra Pradesh.

On opening the parcel, a thermocol box was found. The box contained 10 small plastic vials wrapped in silver foil and cotton. On examination, live spiders were found inside each vial.

Animal quarantine officials inspected the spiders and recommended returning the parcel containing the species to the country of origin as the said import is illegal and there was no

DGFT

(Directorate General of Foreign Trade) licence and health-related documents of import to India.

The spiders were seized under the Customs Act, 1962 read with FT (D&R) Act. The parcel containing the spiders was handed over to postal authorities to return it to Poland, the country of origin.

The Chennai air customs postal appraising department has seized three postal parcels containing 274 gram of ganja and five parcels of narcotics substances -- MDMA tablets, methamphetamine, amphetamine, charas -- totalling 92 gram. The parcels, which arrived from the Netherland and the US, were seized under provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985 read with the Customs Act, 1962.