Kompong Chhnang provincial authorities have detained one man and released into the wild dozens of live snakes officials say the man was smuggling in bags packed full of the serpents.
Men Phymen, director of wildlife protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the snakes were confiscated Friday after police found the bags, weighing a total of 100 kg, while checking taxis along Route 5. Some of the snakes were poisonous, Men Phymen said. Police took the man to the provincial court on charges of trafficking endangered animals.
“Species of poisonous snakes have been threatened in recent years” because of wildlife traffickers, Men Phymen said.
The snakes were smuggled through Vietnam to China, where they are used for traditional medicine, said Nao Thuok, director of the fisheries department at the Ministry of Agriculture. The government allows four species of non-poisonous snakes to be sent abroad, he said.
Wildlife officials have voiced concerns that a decline in the number of snakes in Cambodia has resulted in a population jump for mice and other rodents.
