DENPASAR, Indonesia — Authorities say they have arrested a Russian tourist who was attempting to smuggle a drugged orangutan out of Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Andrei Zhestkov, 27, was captured late Friday at the airport after an X-ray found the 2-year-old male orangutan in a rattan basket inside his luggage, said Ketut Catur Marbawa from Bali province’s conservation agency.
Customs officers also found allergy pills, two geckos and five lizards in the man’s suitcase, Marbawa said Sunday. All animals were alive.
Zhestkok told authorities he deliberately fed the orangutan allergy pills mixed with milk, causing the animal to lose consciousness for up to three hours, Marbawa said. He told them he planned to redose the animal during a transit in Seoul.
