Smuggler carried crocodile meat and snake gall bladders

A man was caught trying to smuggle monkey head fungus, crocodile meat, a vial of snake gall bladders, and two pouches of sliced deerhorn into the country, a court was told yesterday.

Chinese man Ying Xuan Zhou, 30, pleaded guilty in Hastings District Court to three charges of bringing unauthorised goods into New Zealand, laid under the Biosecurity Act.

He was fined $2550 plus costs.

Crown prosecutor Nicola Graham told the court Zhou entered New Zealand at Auckland International Airport on October 5 last year.

Zhou only declared that he was carrying tea with him.

Subsequent searches of Zhou's bag found the monkey head fungus, crocodile meat, white cubes of an unknown substance, and the snake gall bladders.

Zhou tried to pass off the crocodile meat as fish.

The sliced deerhorn was found in a sleeve sewn into the back of Zhou's jeans.

Defence counsel Steve Manning said all the items were packed and sealed, although Zhou had acknowledged there was a potential risk.

Judge Geoff Rea said Zhou must have known he was trying to bring items into New Zealand when he was not entitled to do so.

"The introduction of species such as these can pose a significant risk to New Zealand's agricultural industries and the people who work in them," he said.

Judge Rea fined Zhou $750 and $130 court costs on each charge, and ordered him to pay $130 legal fees.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY