An Italian traveler returning home through Turin's Caselle Airport was reported to prosecutors this week after customs officers found a dried, decapitated crocodile head packed in his checked luggage, wrapped in ordinary brown paper.
Officers from Italy's customs agency and its Guardia di Finanza financial police intercepted the item on September 8 as the man arrived on a route from Miami by way of Istanbul, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. The specimen, identified as belonging to a protected crocodilian species, had passed through security screening in the country of departure without being flagged.
The passenger was reported to authorities, rather than arrested, on suspicion of importing a specimen of a protected species without the certification required under the Washington Convention — the 1973 international treaty better known by its acronym, CITES, which governs cross-border trade in endangered plants and animals. Under Italian law implementing the treaty, a conviction can carry a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 euros or a prison term of six months to a year, penalties UPI reported after the seizure.
A recurring souvenir problem
Italian authorities have long flagged the country as a transit hub for the illegal wildlife trade, much of it tied to organized crime networks moving ivory, reptile skins and coral. But officials and wildlife groups say a good share of seized items, including dried crocodile and alligator heads, arrive far more innocently: as novelty souvenirs bought by tourists in Florida gift shops, where the curios are sold legally as taxidermy under U.S. rules but require a CITES export permit to leave the country and an import permit to enter the European Union. Travelers who skip that paperwork, knowingly or not, risk having the items confiscated at the border.
Caselle's baggage scanners have caught similar attempts before, and Turin is not the only Italian airport where the trade turns up: officers at ports and airports across the country regularly report seized reptile skins, stuffed animals and ivory carvings each year, according to Italy's forestry and customs services.
The case now moves to the Turin prosecutor's office, which will decide whether to pursue charges. The confiscated head has been handed over to Italian wildlife authorities, the standard procedure for specimens seized under the CITES regime, pending a determination of its exact species and origin.
