Dubai-bound passenger caught in India smuggling monkey in his trousers

NEW DELHI // A man attempting to board a flight with a monkey in his underwear has been arrested at New Delhi's international airport.

The man, who was arrested along with two other travellers, had arrived from Bangkok on Sunday and was about to take a connecting flight to Dubai on Jet Airways, the Press Trust of India reported today.

Personnel at the airport found the 17-centimetre loris, a type of monkey native to India and South East Asia, "in one of the passengers' underwear during the security check", PTI reported.

Another loris was discovered in a dustbin at the Indira Gandhi International airport.

"They had abandoned him as they were unable to carry him," a security official said.

The passengers were handed over to Wildlife and Customs Department for further questioning and were later arrested by customs police.

Authorities were trying to determine the exact origin of the monkeys.

Customs officials recently caught an Indian man at Mumbai's main airport with 10 turtles in his underwear, which he was trying to smuggle into the city from Bangkok, the Hindustan Times reported last week.

They also seized six Persian cats, three poisonous tarantula spiders and 11 birds eggs from the man and his two accomplices, the report said.

The newspaper quoted a customs official saying the men were fined and sent back to Bangkok with the protected species and eggs they were trying to smuggle.