Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian court on Monday sentenced a wildlife trafficker to six months in jail and a fine of 190,000 ringgit (about 61,000 dollars) for trying to smuggle out of the country 95 boa constrictors hidden in his luggage.
Anson Wong Keng Liang, 52, had earlier pleaded guilty at the Sepang district court to the charge of exporting endangered reptiles without a permit. He was arrested August 26 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport while en route from the northern state of Penang to Indonesia.
The reptiles were found when Wong’s check-in luggage broke on the conveyor belt. Besides the boa constrictors, authorities also found two rhinoceros vipers and a turtle.
Wong – one of the subjects of a book titled Lizard King, which detailed the international wildlife trade – was sentenced in 2000 to 71 months jail in the United States on trafficking charges.