Customs seize 551 songbirds

Customs officers last night seized a van incoming from Sicily carrying 551 songbirds, in cages hidden behind boxed carrying oranges.

The birds were hidden in 18 wooden containers and nine plastic boxed, which included hawfinches, siskins, greenfinches, serins and chaffinches.

Customs informed police and the MEPA avifauna section, while the birds were passed on to the government's quarantine section.