MexicoTed - 4-29-2018 at 11:35 PM
Not sure if this has been posted. The part of the article that really makes me upset is "The man was arrested and then granted conditional release
after paying a $600 fine". $600 fine, that's a joke!
"Mexico City police found 416 totoaba swim bladders, prized for their purported rejuvenating qualities, in passenger’s suitcasesMexican
authorities have arrested a Chinese airline passenger after a strong smell emanating from his suitcases led to the discovery that he was transporting
body parts from hundreds of endangered fish.Police at the Mexico City international airport “found 416 totoaba swim bladders in [the passenger’s]
two suitcases,” the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.The totoaba’s swim bladder – an organ certain fish species
use to control their buoyancy – is prized in Chinese traditional medicine for its purported rejuvenating qualities, and can fetch up to $20,000 on
the black market.The man was arrested and then granted conditional release after paying a $600 fine, the statement said.The critically endangered
totoaba is native to the Gulf of California, off Mexico’s western coast.Authorities say drug cartels and heavily armed poachers are involved in
trafficking its swim bladder, dubbed the “cocaine of the sea”.The nets used to catch the totoaba have also contributed to the demise of another
critically endangered species, the vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise. Researchers estimate just 30 of them now remain."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/mexico-arrests-chinese-traveler-with-endangered-fish