Ecuadorean police say they've arrested a Mexican man for trying to smuggle 11 iguanas — an endangered species — from the Galapagos islands.
Police Capt. William Herrera told Ecuavisa TV on Monday that the man was trying to ship nine marine iguana babies and two juvenile land iguanas by air to the mainland with Uganda as the ultimate destination.
The alleged trafficker, who authorities said had previously committed similar crimes in New Zealand, was trying to transport nine marine iguanas and two land iguanas, all endemic to the islands' fragile ecosystem.
The Ecuadoran Environment Ministry said in a statement that the man had intended to send the reptiles to Uganda "with the aid of other foreigners who had come to the islands on the pretext of tourism."
Officials say each iguana could fetch up to $25,000 on the black market. They said the man was arrested over the weekend and belonged to an international trafficking ring. They identified him only as Gustavo T.
Stopped in the town of Puerto Ayora, on the island of Santa Cruz, the man, whose name was not released, was transferred to a mainland prison in Guayaquil.
In Ecuador, trafficking in endangered fauna is punishable by 1-2 years in prison.
The Galapagos have a unique collection of wildlife whose isolation helped naturalist Charles Darwin validate his theory of evolution.
Ecuadoran authorities are investigating his possible involvement in a global network of traffickers in protected species.
In 2013, a German man was sentenced to four years in prison for trying to take four iguanas out of Ecuador in his luggage.
The Galapagos Islands, isolated 900 miles off the coast of Ecuador, are known for inspiring Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and are home to a large number of endemic species, animals that are only found there.
The archipelago has been classified a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.
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