Lorenzo Prendini, Director of the American National Museum of Natural History, was detained in a smuggling operation organized at Istanbul Airport, allegedly trying to smuggle endemic species of poisonous animals living in Anatolia abroad.
Istanbul Police Department Anti-Smuggling Crimes Branch teams, in their study, determined that the DNA information of endemic species of poisonous animals living in Turkey were copied and their poisons were collected by milking method and used in drug production.
The teams determined that these species were attempted to be illegally exported abroad and organized an operation at Istanbul Airport. During the operation, Lorenzo Prendini, the director of the American National Museum of Natural History in New York, was detained.
During the search of the suspect’s luggage, 88 plastic tube bottles containing liquids and 58 clip-on bags containing approximately 1500 scorpions, tarantulas and spiders, which are endemic to Turkey, were seized.
The suspect, against whom a procedure was initiated for “opposing the Anti-Smuggling Law 5607”, is still in police custody.
The endemic animals seized during the operation were exhibited to the press at the Istanbul Security Directorate’s compound in Vatan Street.
On the other hand, it was claimed that the market value of 1 liter of medicine obtained from scorpion venom was approximately 10 million dollars.
