Gendarmerie units seize large amount of cobra venom in Erzurum

ERZURUM

Milking a Cobra for venom during a snake handling display at Queen Saovabha Snake Park, Bangkok, Thailand. (Alamy Stock Photo)

Gendarmerie units have seized cobra venom stored in 500 small tubes in the eastern province of Erzurum.

Acting on a tip-off, the units launched an operation against the suspects. They searched a business and a vehicle and found the cobra venom.

Two people in connection with the incident have been detained.

Cobra venom is widely used in a number of industries, including cosmetics, chemicals and health.

Around one liter of cobra venom is legally produced in Turkey each year.

In March this year, security forces seized 93 tubes of cobra venom in the Central Anatolian province of Bilecik.

The market value of 93 tubes of venom is estimated to be 7.3 million Turkish Liras ($1.3 million), local media reported at that time.

Local media also reported in December last year that Istanbul police seized a total of 1,725 tubes containing cobra venom smuggled from Syria, with a market value of approximately 30 million liras.

This amount was reportedly the highest amount ever seized in a raid in Turkey.