On Monday (29), Colombian police arrested a 37-year-old Brazilian woman at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, who was carrying 130 frogs of the Oophaga histrionica species in her luggage. Popularly known as the dart-poison frog, the amphibian is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
According to the police, the unidentified woman was boarding a flight to São Paulo, with a layover in Panama, and was arrested for wildlife trafficking. During the search, the police found 130 film canisters concealed in a suitcase, where the frogs were kept. At the time of the seizure, the animals already showed signs of asphyxiation and were taken to a wildlife center for recovery.
The poisonous, colorful, and exotic-looking species is desired in international markets by collectors, who reportedly pay up to R$ 5,000 ($ 1,000) for each individual. The dart-poison frogs measure less than 5 cm and inhabit the humid tropical forests of the Pacific region, spanning from Ecuador and Colombia to other countries in Central and South America.