Airport authorities make shocking discovery during routine luggage inspection: 'The suspect was detained on the spot'
A man was caught trying to smuggle endangered primates hidden in his suitcase through airport security. The arrest highlights a growing global crisis: wildlife trafficking through major travel hubs.
What happened?
According to the New Straits Times, a man attempting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Mumbai, India, was detained after it was discovered he was trying to smuggle four endangered black-handed gibbons inside his luggage.
The animals, valued at around RM30,000 (roughly $6,400 USD), were discovered during a routine inspection at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
"The suspect was detained on the spot and taken to the Aeropolis police headquarters for further action," officials from Malaysia's Border Control and Protection Agency confirmed in a statement.
The gibbons have since been handed over to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan). Authorities are pursuing charges under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008.
The arrest was part of a coordinated enforcement effort launched in partnership with Aviation Security (AVSEC) and Perhilitan, aimed at cracking down on trafficking activity through high-risk aviation entry points.
"AVSEC and Perhilitan will continue to tighten security controls at KLIA and will not compromise with any party involved in wildlife trafficking via air routes," the statement added.
Why is wildlife trafficking concerning?
Trafficking endangered species isn't just a crime; it is also a direct threat to global biodiversity and the stability of ecosystems that humans rely on.
When animals are taken from their habitats and moved across borders, they can introduce disease, destabilize local ecosystems, and fuel illegal trade networks that undermine years of conservation progress.
Many species are on the brink of extinction due to deforestation and poaching. When they are pulled from the wild, they leave gaps that forests can't easily fill.
Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty?
Definitely
Only in some areas
No way
I'm not sure
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Gibbons play essential roles in seed dispersal and forest regeneration. Without them, ecosystems grow weaker and become less resilient.
What's being done about wildlife trafficking?
In Malaysia and other countries across Southeast Asia, officials have stepped up efforts to intercept smugglers at key transit points like KLIA, which often serve as launch points for illegal animal exports. But long-term success depends on sustained coordination between wildlife agencies, customs, and law enforcement, as well as stronger international penalties.
There's also a role for the public. Avoiding the purchase of exotic pets or products made from endangered species, reporting suspicious animal listings online, and supporting reputable wildlife organizations can help shrink demand and pressure traffickers' supply chains.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
40 minutes ago
- Fox News
ABC's Martha Raddatz admits Trump border policies 'certainly working' in stemming migrant flow
ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz hit the Los Angeles mayor with a surprising fact-check on the success of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda on Sunday. After airing an interview that she had with Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, Raddatz disputed her claim that Trump's immigration crackdown hasn't been successful. "And whatever they're doing is certainly working at the border itself," the reporter said on ABC News, responding to Bass' take. The network aired a segment of the interview where Raddatz asked the mayor about Trump's use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants in the major California city. "Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, 3.8 million people, and about 50% of our population is Latino," Bass said. "And so, when the raids started, fear spread. Fear spread like a virus around the entire county." Raddatz followed up, asking, "Is there anything good you think the administration has done in these six months at the border?" The mayor replied by saying that the administration did well when responding to the L.A. fires that ravaged the county near the start of 2025. "[But] if you ask me, is there anything that they have done good in terms of immigration? I don't know, I don't think so. I think that the viewpoint has been punitive, has been, 'Let's make it as miserable as possible so that these people don't come,'" Bass said. Following the interview clip, Raddatz disputed Bass' statement, saying that the Trump administration's crackdown has produced dramatic results on the U.S. southern border. "We were down on that border, and it is dramatically, dramatically different than it was a year ago," she declared. As U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported earlier this month, June 2025 saw the lowest number of southern border crossings in U.S. history. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a "historical low" of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. The Biden administration, on the other hand, saw record numbers of illegal border crossings during its term. Dec. 2023 was the "worst month for encounters of inadmissible aliens on the southern border in U.S. history – 251,178," The Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center senior research fellow Simon Hankinson wrote last week. The mayor's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Drones increasingly being used to smuggle items from Sinai to Gaza
The context surrounding the smuggling into Gaza, however, may not be a surprise. Drones are increasingly being used to smuggle items from Sinai to Gaza, according to a report at The New Arab. While any kind of report like this should be greeted with some skepticism, it is clear that drones are increasingly being used to smuggle items not just in the Middle East, but worldwide. The New Arab is also known as Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and is a London-based pan-Arab news outlet. Several drone smuggling attempts from Egypt into Israel have been reported over the last year. In late October 2024, a drone carrying weapons from Egypt was downed. In November, a drone carrying weapons and ammunition crossed into Israel from Egypt. Arab News noted, 'The Israeli military said on Wednesday it shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel.' In January, another incident took place. 'IDF forces identified and thwarted a smuggling attempt from Egypt into Israel overnight,' The Jerusalem Post reported. In February, a drone was downed by the IDF while trying to smuggle weapons and ammunition into the Negev. In April, another two drones carrying weapons were also intercepted. This context illustrates that the new report about smuggling to Gaza may not be a surprise. What does the report say? It claims that recently, Gazans in Mawasi, the humanitarian area in Gaza, woke up to the sound of a drone crashing. 'It became clear that what had fallen was a drone carrying bags that had been hit by an Israeli missile while flying over the tents, coming from the direction of southern Gaza, the Egyptian-Palestinian border.' The report claims that drug smugglers have been involved in the drone operations. 'They opened fire on anyone who tried to approach the area, even ambulances and civil defense vehicles were not spared.' The report claims that one drone type can carry up to 50 kilograms of payload. That would seem like a lot for these types of drones. The report also claims that some of the drones have landed in various parts of Rafah. The report claims 'that a portion of these drones fall in the eastern areas of Rafah, specifically the neighborhoods of al-Shawka, Abu Halawa, Zalata, Sufa, and al-Nasr. These are areas where groups affiliated with Yasser Abu Shabab.' Clearly, the report is trying to portray Shabab, who has been under the spotlight recently in Gaza, as somehow linked to this issue. Recent reports in Israeli media have suggested that Shabab and his men fear reprisals if a ceasefire takes place. He has reportedly been backed by Israel, but it is not clear how much influence or control he has. 'Drones loaded with drugs and contraband fall in the western areas, including the al-Mawasi area, as well as in the eastern areas under the control of the occupation forces and Yasser Abu Shabab's gang,' the source told The New Arab. Clearly, the agenda here is to slander Shabab, more than it is to discuss the drones. THE REPORT goes on to say that smuggling via drones is not that new. It says that it began around the time of the October 7 war in 2023. 'This came after attempts to smuggle across the border, manually or through traditional methods, failed, and were completely exposed to the occupation army as well as to the Egyptian army forces active on the border and in Sinai in general.' The report then goes on to quote a source as saying that the smuggling is linked to larger smuggling networks that link Sinai to the Negev and possibly the West Bank, 'which includes smuggling weapons and drugs to gangs active in Israel.' The smuggling route to Gaza via this method is new, the source told The New Arab. 'He explained that with the closure of the Rafah crossing and the prevention of trucks carrying goods and aid from entering the Gaza Strip, smugglers have resorted to using drones, which are purchased from several sources outside Egypt and delivered to North Sinai, where they are loaded with narcotics such as hashish and Tramadol pills [opioids], and other substances.' The report then goes on to speak to a source who deals in mobile phones. The man told The New Arab that he was able to bring in 'mobile phones via a drone coming from Sinai, after weeks of coordination and waiting. He paid a huge sum of money for the shipment, but he was able to recover this amount due to the exorbitant prices of mobile phones in Gaza.' The report claimed that the drone carried 100 phones. Smuggling network dates back to over 10 years ago A security expert told the report that the smuggling networks in Sinai date back to the period of 2014. There was a war that year, and it should be recalled that the Mohammed Morsi government was overthrown in Egypt in 2013, ending the Muslim Brotherhood's brief rule of Egypt. That was an era of chaos in Sinai when massive smuggling of weapons occurred, fueling violence. 'Some gangs and groups within the Gaza Strip that participated in building smuggling networks through tunnels, especially during the period before 2014, are currently trying to exploit the situation to their advantage,' the report says. The issue of drone smuggling in Gaza is a concern. In April, a report at Israel's N12 indicated Hamas had attempted to get Bedouin in the Sinai to smuggle drones into Gaza. 'The drones are worth only NIS 100,000 to 150,000 each and can carry up to 70 kilogram of cargo,' the Post reported at the time. Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
Epstein's former lawyer: Ghislaine Maxwell should get immunity in exchange for secrets
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988. Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer has suggested that the sex-trafficking financier's only convicted accomplice should be granted immunity from further prosecution in exchange for coming clean in front of Congress. Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, is the only associate held criminally or civilly liable in connection with the allegations against Epstein. In 2016, she sat for a deposition in a civil lawsuit, in which she denied recollection of nearly two dozen flights on Epstein's private jet with an underage Virginia Giuffre, who would go on to become the trafficking duo's most outspoken accuser. Epstein's flight logs showed Giuffre and Maxwell on the plane at the same time 23 times before she turned 18, Fox News Digital reported previously. Giuffre died of suicide earlier this year. "[Maxwell] knows everything," Alan Dershowitz, a former attorney for Epstein, told Fox News' Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday." "She is the Rosetta Stone." An unidentified friend of Maxwell's said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail that she would be open to testifying before Congress. Maxwell's attorney declined to confirm or deny the reporting. "If she were just given use immunity, she could be compelled to testify," Dershowitz said. "I'm told that she actually would be willing to testify, and there'd be no reason for her to withhold any information. So I don't see any negative in giving her the kind of use immunity that would compel her to testify. So she ought to be summoned in front of a congressional committee." The comments come days after federal authorities said they would ask a federal judge to unseal secret grand jury materials in an attempt to shed more light on Epstein's criminal enterprise. Dershowitz, however, warned that most of the material of interest to the public is not in the grand jury materials, but in sealed court documents, some of which he has already seen. He cautioned, however, that not all the allegations leveled at people in Epstein's orbit would be credible. "As long as there's nothing redacted about the accuser's lack of credibility, then the public has the right to make its own decision," he said. "Just because somebody's name is mentioned doesn't really mean very much." Under federal law, use of immunity is a legal protection that prevents a witness' testimony or any evidence drawn from it from being used to prosecute them criminally, so long as they tell the truth. In 2021, more than two years after Epstein's death in custody while awaiting his own trial, Maxwell was convicted of helping him traffic teen girls. She received a 20-year sentence and has appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. "She arranged every single trip with everybody," Dershowitz said. "She knows everything."
