1,800 monitor lizards smuggled into Bangkok 'to be sold for food in China'

1,800 monitor lizards smuggled into Bangkok 'to be sold for food in China'

 

It's a question faced by Chinese takeaways the nation over - 'do you deliver?'

But it appears punters with a certain acquired taste in China might be getting some rather unsavory culinary specialists in Thailand to drive their food over a few borders for them.

Police in Bangkok have seized 1,800 monitor lizards that were being smuggled on a convoy of pick-up trucks and believe they were eventually bound for the plate in China.

Rescued: Police believe the 1,800 huge lizards being smuggled into Bangkok were bound for the dinner plate in China

Lizard bath: The reptile are sprayed with water after being kept in bags on the back of pick-up trucks during the journey

Customs officials said the Bengal monitor lizards were hidden in mesh bags and stashed in open containers behind boxes of fruit in three pickup trucks.

They were seized on Thursday at a checkpoint in southern Thailand en route to Bangkok.

Customs Department chief Prasong Poontaneat said today that he suspects the lizards were destined to be eaten.

He said their meat sells for £4.50-£9 per pound (around £10-£20 per kilogram) in China, making them worth more than $60,000 in total to the smugglers - around £37,000.

Thai'd up: Bound for China? A customs officer shows the size of the Bengal monitor lizards and, right, his colleagues pack one of the creatures away again

Fell off the back of a lorry: The lizards were found on the three 'fruit' trucks at the rear of this photo

 

International trade in the reptiles is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

In Thailand, illegal sale of wildlife carries a penalty of up to four years in prison and a fine of £800.

Fortunately for this huge population of beautiful lizards, the future is more likely to see them as the main attraction in  wildlife parks than main courses in restaurants. 

The reptiles, brought from Songkhla province in southern Thailand, will now be transported to Thailand's National Park for release.