Frozen wild Siamese crocodiles are placed on a playground in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Photo/Chinanews.com)
Frontier police in south China have seized 70 frozen wild Siamese crocodiles and 88 crocodile tails, local authorities said Saturday.
The Siamese crocodiles were seized from a seafood freight truck at 3 p.m. Tuesday at a checkpoint in the China-Vietnam border city of Fangchenggang after police realized that the amount of goods was different from that on the list provided by the driver, Fangchenggang's frontier police detachment said.
The crocodiles were sealed in 16 foam boxes. Each one measured about one meter long with a weight of 10 kilogram, while the 88 tails were about 0.7 meter long each.
The driver said that he was told to transport a seafood shipment from the border city of Dongxing to Fangchenggang, unaware of the crocodiles on his truck, according to the police.
Further investigation is under way.
Siamese crocodiles are a critically endangered species native to Southeast Asia. Their skin is used as raw material for luxury leather products on the international market. It is illegal in China to raise them without a license or to trade and traffic the species.
