Dubai-bound falcon egg smuggler jailed

A Zimbabwean who tried to smuggle rare eggs worth £70,000 (Dh 406,000) out of Britain to Dubai has been jailed by a UK court for 30 months, Sky News reported on Thursday. Jeffrey Lendrum, 48, from Towcester, Northamptonshire, was caught with 14 peregrine falcon eggs that were placed in socks and taped to his body. He was arrested at Birmingham International Airport, on May 3, after he was spotted acting suspiciously by a cleaner. Lendrum, who has homes in both Zimbabwe and South Africa, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court on Wednesday. He holds and Irish passport. Lendrum was found guilty of taking the falcon eggs from a nest in South Wales and trying to export them without a permit. He has a history of egg trafficking in Zimbabwe and Canada, where he was filmed abseiling from a helicopter to steal rare eggs from the top of a tree. Officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit found the eggs tied up in socks and taped to his chest. He told the officials he was taking them abroad as a practical joke on his father, adding they were good for back pain. Bred in captivity, the eggs can be bought for around £1,500 each, but are worth much more once hatched. Eleven of the 14 eggs were successfully incubated and eight chicks have already been reintegrated to nesting sites around the UK. The remaining chicks are currently in a wild release programme. The court heard there were only 1,400 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in the UK and the birds were regarded as one of the most endangered species.