Customs police confiscate five rare parrots

Customs police confiscated five specimens of an extremely rare parrot, the protected palm cockatoo breed, estimated to be worth a million Czech crowns, late on Tuesday night. Officers found the birds in the trunk of a car when they were performing a routine check. The driver was returning from Slovakia to the Czech Republic via the D2 motorway, he was stopped near the south Moravian town of Břeclav. The man denied that he was smuggling the birds. Transporting palm cockatoos across borders without any documentation is in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Czech Environmental Inspectorate and customs police are investigating the case.