Police on a Japanese holiday island have arrested three Chinese nationals after thousands of protected hermit crabs were found stuffed into multiple suitcases.
The three suspects – Liao Zhibin, 24, Song Zhenhao, 26, and Guo Jiawei, 27 – were found to have 160 kilograms (353 pounds) of the live crustaceans in their possession on Wednesday, according to police on the Amami Islands, near Okinawa.
Police said a hotel worker in Amami, a city on the island of Amami Oshima, alerted environmental authorities after spotting something suspicious about the suitcases the three men had asked hotel staff to watch.
Officers later arrived at the hotel and found the spiral-shelled hermit crabs stuffed into six suitcases, according to police.
When they returned to the hotel on Wednesday, the three men were arrested for possessing the crustaceans without proper authorization, Kyodo News reported.
It’s unknown why the three men were transporting the crustaceans.
The Amami archipelago, off southwestern Kyushu and just north of Okinawa, is a popular tourist destination and known to be home to a diverse array of native plants and animals.