Local News

Fukuoka Prefecture Police seized computers and accounting ledgers from nine locations in connection with two vendors suspected of illegally selling Siamese crocodiles, a critically threatened species under the Washington Convention. They will pore over the seized items to investigate how the vendors managed to bring the animals into Japan. The two vendors that were raided were Priceless, a pet shop in Kitakyushu, and Vietnam-ya, an online retailer based in Kanda Town. According to the Ministry of the Environment, vendors must register each endangered animal with the Ministry before they can sell them, but Priceless allegedly sold an unregistered Siamese crocodile to a man in Kitakyushu in October 2010 for ¥300,000. Meanwhile Vietnam-ya is suspected of selling an unregistered croc to two men in the Kansai area for ¥50,000 in August 2011. According to a pet shop owner in Iizuka, Siamese crocodiles obtained through legal channels typically retail for ¥1~2 million. Given the low sales prices in both cases, the police are investigating the possibility of smuggling. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, May 10

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