Home WebMail Saturday, November 2, 2024, 12:16 PM | Calgary | -0.8°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2019-03-24T12:39:15Z | Updated: 2019-03-25T17:39:31Z Drugged Orangutan Discovered In Russian Tourists Suitcase At Bali Airport | HuffPost

Drugged Orangutan Discovered In Russian Tourists Suitcase At Bali Airport

Andrei Zhestkov, 27, told authorities he'd intended on keeping the two-year-old animal as a pet.
|

A Russian tourist has been arrested in Indonesia after airport security discovered a drugged orangutan in his suitcase , local officials said Saturday.

Andrei Zhestkov, 27, told authorities that a friend had given him the 2-year-old animal as a gift. The friend had purchased the orangutan for about $3,000 at a Javanese market, Zhestkov claimed.

The tourist said he’d intended on bringing the orangutan back with him to Russia to keep as a pet. Police said Zhestkov also had two geckos and several lizards, all of them alive, in his luggage. 

Open Image Modal
The orangutan was found asleep inside a rattan basket in Zhestkov's suitcase, the officials said.
Associated Press

Security personnel at Bali’s Denpasar airport found the orangutan asleep in a rattan basket inside Zhestkov’s suitcase on Friday night, Ketut Catur Marbawa, a Bali conservation agency official, told Agence France-Presse .

The Russian admitted to feeding the animal allergy pills to sedate it, Marbawa said. It’s unclear whether the reptiles in Zhestkov’s luggage had been similarly drugged.

Zhestkov could face up to five years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines for the attempted smuggling, AFP reported. 

The state of the young orangutan’s health was not known, but it appeared alert and active in a Saturday photo obtained by Reuters.

All three species of orangutan are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The animals, native to Indonesia and Malaysia, have been driven to the brink of extinction by deforestation , the illegal pet trade and poaching .

Your Support Has Never Been More Critical

Other news outlets have retreated behind paywalls. At HuffPost, we believe journalism should be free for everyone.

Would you help us provide essential information to our readers during this critical time? We can't do it without you.

Support HuffPost

Before You Go