bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

A Russian tourist trying to smuggle a drugged orangutan out of Indonesia in his suitcase to take home and keep as a pet has been arrested in Bali, police said on Saturday.
Andrei Zhestkov was detained in Denpasar airport late on Friday while passing through a security screening before a planned flight back to Russia.

Suspicious officers stopped him then opened his luggage to find a two-year-old male orangutan sleeping inside a rattan basket.
“We believe the orangutan was fed allergy pills which caused him to sleep. We found the pills inside the suitcase,” Bali conservation agency official I Ketut Catur Marbawa said. “[Zhestkov] seemed prepared, like he was transporting a baby.”
The 27-year-old also packed baby milk powder and blankets for the orangutan, Marbawa said.
Police also found two live geckos and five lizards inside the suitcase.

Zhestkov told authorities the protected species was a gift from his friend, another Russian tourist who bought the primate for US$3,000 from a street market in Java.
He claimed his friend, who has since left Indonesia, convinced him he could take the orangutan home and keep it as a pet.
The Russian could face five years in prison and US$7,000 in fines for smuggling, Marbawa said.
Orangutans are a critically endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with only about 100,000 left worldwide.
Orangutan blinded after being shot 74 times with an air gun in Indonesia; its baby dies of malnutrition
Plantation workers and villagers in Indonesia often consider the apes pests and sometimes attack them, while poachers capture the animals to sell as pets.
A string of fatal attacks on the apes have been blamed on farmers and hunters.
Four Indonesian men were arrested last year over the killing of an orangutan shot some 130 times with an air gun.


Interpol issues red notice for Indonesian oil tycoon in US$285 million corruption scandal

Indonesian woman collapses after 140 lashes for sex and alcohol

5 of Asia’s overlooked Unesco wonders, in Macau, Bali, South Korea, India and Japan

Indonesian actress’ memoir starts national conversation

Indonesia

Indonesia busts Russian smuggling drugged orangutan through Bali airport

A rescued two-year-old orangutan inside a rattan basket after a smuggling attempt by a Russian tourist at Bali’s airport in Denpasar. Photo: Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Bali/AFP

This handout picture taken and released on March 23, 2019 by the Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Bali shows officials with detained Russian national Andrei Zhestkov (C), accused of smuggling a two-year-old orangutan in a rattan basket, at Bali's international airport in Denpasar. - Indonesian authorities on March 22 arrested a Russian tourist for attempting to smuggle an orangutan out of the country in his suitcase. (Photo by Handout / Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Bali / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION AGENCY OF BALI" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

This handout picture taken and released on March 23, 2019 by the Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Bali shows a caregiver bottle-feeding a rescued two-year-old orangutan after a smuggling attempt by a Russian tourist at Bali's international airport in Denpasar. - Indonesian authorities on March 22 arrested a Russian tourist for attempting to smuggle an orangutan out of the country in his suitcase. (Photo by Handout / Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Bali / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION AGENCY OF BALI" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Orangutan rips off wildlife officer’s finger as Thailand returns 14 smuggled great apes to Indonesia

epa05020238 A Thai National Park official feeds fruit to confiscated orangutans in a cage before being sent back home to Indonesia, at Khao Pratupchang Wildlife Breeding Center in Ratchaburi province, Thailand, 11 November 2015. According to media reports, Thailand will return fourteen smuggled orangutans to Indonesia on 12 November, after Thai authorities found them in 2010 by a roadside in Phuket province, apparently on their way to a private zoo. EPA/NARONG SANGNAK

A hand of orangutan in a cage is pictured at Kao Pratubchang Conservation Centre in Ratchaburi, Thailand, November 11, 2015. Thailand officials are preparing to send back to Indonesia 14 confiscated orangutans. Most of the Sumatran and Borneo Kalimantan orangutans were confiscated from entertainment businesses in Phuket province since 2008. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

An orangutan look out from inside a cage during preparations for the apes' repatriation to Indonesia at Kao Pratubchang Conservation Centre in Ratchaburi, Thailand, November 11, 2015. Thailand officials are preparing to send back to Indonesia 14 confiscated orangutans. Most of the Sumatran and Borneo Kalimantan orangutans were confiscated from entertainment businesses in Phuket province since 2008. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

A Thai National Park official feeds fruit to orangutans in a cage before they were sent back home to Indonesia. Photo: EPA

Orangutan held in zoo is a 'non-human person' and can be freed, Argentine court rules

Sandra seen in her cage at Buenos Aires zoo. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia court allows construction of China-backed dam in endangered orangutan habitat to continue, angering environmental activists

An activist in an orangutan costume protests outside the Chinese Consulate in Medan, Indonesia. Photo: AP

This undated photo released by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme shows a Tapanuli orangutan with its baby in Batang Toru Ecosystem in Tapanuli, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Scientists are claiming an isolated and tiny population of orangutans on the Indonesian island of Sumatra with frizzier hair and smaller heads are a new species of great ape. It's believed that there are no more than 800 of the primates that researchers named Pongo tapanuliensis, making it the most endangered great ape species. (James Askew/Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme via AP)

In this Friday, March 1, 2019, activists display posters near an orangutan mural during a protest against the construction of a Chinese-backed dam that they claimed will rip through the habitat of the most critically endangered orangutan species in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. A state administrative court in North Sumatra's capital, Medan, ruled that the construction can continue despite critics of the 510-megawatt hydro dam providing evidence that its environmental impact assessment was deeply flawed. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Presiding judge Jimmy C. Paraded, center, announces the decision of a three-judge on environmental activists' legal challenge against the construction of a Chinese-backed dam that they claimed will rip through the habitat of the most critically endangered orangutan species, at the administrative court in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Monday, March 4, 2019. The court ruled that the construction can continue despite critics of the 510-megawatt hydro dam providing evidence that its environmental impact assessment was deeply flawed. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

Suspicious customs officers found a two-year-old male orangutan and some lizards in the man’s luggage


Suspicious customs officers found a two-year-old male orangutan and some lizards in the man’s luggage.


Conservation

Indonesia busts Russian smuggling drugged orangutan through Bali airport

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Suspicious customs officers found a two-year-old male orangutan and some lizards in the man’s luggage

Suspicious customs officers found a two-year-old male orangutan and some lizards in the man’s luggage