MONKEY BUSINESS

Drugged Orangutan and Lizards Found in Russian Passenger Suitcase in Indonesia.

A Russian man was planning to take the orangutan back home as a pet.

Russian citizen Andrei Zhestkov was arrested at Denpasar airport in Indonesia after officers found a two-year-old male orangutan sleeping inside a rattan basket in his checked luggage, according to the Guardian. They also found two live geckos and five lizards inside the man’s suitcase. He told customs officials that the protected animal was a gift from a friend who bought the primate for $3,000 on the black market in Java, Indonesia. “We believe the orangutan was fed allergy pills which caused him to sleep. We found the pills inside the suitcase,” Bali conservation agency official I Ketut Catur Marbawa said, according to the Guardian.

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