Bird-smuggling allegation

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 13

Bird-smuggling allegation

j <N‘ Z.P A Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE. j A well-organised syndicate • operating between Australia 1 and Europe is using Singa- ) pore as a centre from which to smuggle birds from Australia to European countries, • according to the Englishlanguage newspaper, "New Nation.” In a front-page report the j newspaper says that a variety; ;of birds are brought into • Singapore illegally from ! Perth, and then 'sent on to Britain, Belgium, France and West Germany, where each realises the equivalent of about SNZI64. The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said that couriers employed by the [syndicate produce a certificate purportedly issued by the Department of Primary Production on arrival in j Singapore. ! “What is alarming is that [ about 70 per cent of the birds from Australia, carried [in their drugged state in a i suitcase, die on arrival in ) Singapore,” the newspaper,; ; says. “But because these birds are highly prized in[i Europe, the smugglers still make enormous profits on, I the remaining 30 per cent (that do find their way to I European markets.”