"Smugglers Nabbed Targeting Turkish Plants, Insects
by Jennifer Hattam, Istanbul, Turkey on 07.16.11
Illegal attempts to spirit endemic species out of the country appear to be on the rise in Turkey, where officials have recently busted a number of would-be smugglers with large cargos of butterflies and other insects, as well as rare tulips and other plants.
A group of people trying to leave the country by car through Bulgaria were apprehended this week with thousands of bugs hidden away in boxes and tubes, the Anatolia news agency reported. Biology professors who examined the cache 'identified 6,014 bugs from 48 different species, including ladybugs, cockroaches, and various types of stag beetles, grasshoppers, flies, and bees' from the Black Sea region and the northern part of Central Anatolia. The haul was reportedly worth 500,000 Turkish Liras, or about $300,000."
More:Smugglers Nabbed Targeting Turkish Plants, Insects : TreeHugger
