Mexico sees spike in trafficking in exotic animals

Trafficking of exotic animals has boomed in recent years in Mexico, as evidenced by the rise in seizures, local media reported Monday.

Citing figures from Mexico's environmental protection agency (Profepa) and the Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR), Havana-based news agency Prensa Latina reported that confiscations of exotic species grew from 2,758 in 2012 to 481,101 in 2014.

Figures from January 2006 to January 2015 show turtles topped the list of trafficked animals, at 2,937, followed by iguanas (1,160), fish (304), snakes (271) and parakeets (203).

The bulk of the animals were smuggled to different parts of Mexico, but the five foreign countries that topped the list of destinations for the exotic species were Spain, distantly followed by Greece, France, Japan and Germany.

Some 92 percent of the seizures were registered in Mexico's eastern state of Yucatan, while the southern state of Guerrero was identified as the leading supplier of birds and reptiles, Campeche as the source of parrots, monkeys and sea cucumbers, and Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, as the states where the most parakeets were captured. Endit