Japan: Three males held over suitcases full of hermit crabs

Three males have been arrested in Japan for trying to smuggle hermit crabs in a foreign country.

The suspects, aged 24, 26 and 27, and broadly recognized in Japanese media as being Chinese language nationals, have been detained on Amami, a southerly island the place the spiral-shelled crustaceans are a protected species.

Authorities have been alerted to the boys’s reside cargo when resort workers, who had been requested to take care of their baggage, seen the suitcases making a “rustling noise”, police informed native media.

Officers subsequently found “hundreds” of hermit crabs, weighing round 95kg. The third man was discovered to have an extra 65kg in one other set of three suitcases.

“Our investigation is ongoing to establish whether or not they had [the crabs] to promote them, or to maintain them as pets, or to eat them,” a police spokesman informed the information company AFP following the arrests on Wednesday. “We’re reviewing all potentialities.”

Police stated the hermit crabs have been “a nationwide treasure”, being part of Amami Island’s plant and animal range.

Hermit crabs – so named as a result of they scavenge shells to reside in – can recurrently be seen on the seashores of the favored vacationer vacation spot.

The crabs may be price as much as ¥20,000 (£103), in accordance with the Japan Instances.