Employees at the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe international passenger checkpoint in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region detained a Chinese woman attempting to smuggle dried deer genitals in her purse, customs employee Vitaly Shebanov said on Monday.
Deer genitals are used in alternative medicine as an aphrodisiac in China thought to treat impotence and frigidity.
“The woman was trying to smuggle dried derivatives (parts of wild animals). Three red deer genital organs were discovered. According to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, derivatives fall under limits for export,” Shebanov said.
The Chinese woman did not declare the deer genitals in her customs statement and faces a fine.