Italian Authorities Seize 377 Exotic Animals at Pozzallo Port Bound for Malta

Financial police from the Tenenza di Pozzallo and officials from the local territorial area of the Agenzia delle dogane e dei monopoli intercepted an illicit transport of 300 tortoises and 77 parrots — 377 animals in all — at the port of Pozzallo, in the Sicilian province of Ragusa, according to the accounts carried by Ragusa News, Ragusa Oggi, Giornale di Sicilia and Quotidiano di Ragusa.

The animals were being carried by a Maltese citizen in a car found close to the boarding point for the catamaran to Malta. The vehicle lacked adequate space and thermoregulation to safeguard the animals' health, a condition confirmed at the scene by veterinary doctors from the ASP of Ragusa who were called to the site, according to the same reports.

Quotidiano di Ragusa alone, in the excerpt available, reports that 76 of the parrots belong to species protected under the Washington Convention; neither that figure nor that classification appears in the other three accounts available. The same outlet reports that subsequent enquiries were entrusted to the CITES operational squad of the Guardia di Finanza company of Cat[ania] — the place name is cut off mid-word in the source excerpt, so the unit's full designation cannot be confirmed from the material available.

The legal position of the man remains unclear. The Ragusa News headline describes him as "denunciato", a term denoting report to the authorities, while Quotidiano di Ragusa says he was "fermato", or stopped. Neither formulation in the available excerpts confirms a formal charge. The case remains under investigation on the accounts available.