The Civil Guard has arrested in Santa Cruz de Tenerife a couple who tried to introduce from Cádiz in a ship bound for the Canary Islands a backpack with dozens of animals of protected and exotic species, some of them in danger of extinction, and others considered invasive.
As reported this Tuesday by the Civil Guard, the events occurred on July 5 during a routine tax control at the dock of Cádiz.
The agents located an abandoned backpack in the passenger boarding area, just before the security check and, after applying the security protocol and verifying that it did not pose an immediate risk, the civil guards found inside 11 plastic boxes with different specimens of wild fauna.
Among the animals transported were two large spiders, two monitor lizards, a gecko, three snakes, a scorpion, a frog, several mice, two sugar gliders, worms and millipedes.
Some of them belong to protected species and the rest, mostly, are invasive exotic species potentially dangerous for the Canary ecosystem.
The specimens were crowded, without adequate ventilation and in poor conditions, which forced the agents to make emergency holes in the containers to ensure their survival.
The Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of Chiclana (Cádiz) took charge of the custody and subsequent transfer of the animals to the Bioparc Center of Fuengirola (Málaga), with the technical support of the Seprona team of El Puerto de Santa María for their identification.
The investigation, carried out by the Fiscal and Border Analysis and Investigation Unit (UDAIFF) of Cádiz, allowed to identify the two alleged perpetrators, who abandoned the backpack after noticing the police presence. Both continued their trip to the Canary Islands without the suspicious luggage.
On July 22, with the collaboration of the Seprona of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the two involved were arrested for a crime against flora and fauna for trafficking in species and another of animal abuse.