Customs officers at a German airport found 26 rare reptiles, smuggled in packages with dolls and sweets from Mexico.
Ten animals died.
Some of them suffocated because they were sewn inside cloth dolls, according to a statement from Cologne/Bonn airport customs.
Among the smuggled animals were the endangered horned lizard, crocodile-lizard and box turtle, intended for buyers in Germany.
These species are some of the many that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) seeks to protect.
German officials are trying to trace the origin of the reptiles, using DNA samples.
It is still unclear whether they came from the wild or from a captive breeding program.
The animals were found in two packages, seized on October 30 and November 8.
The customs service is in contact with the Mexican authorities and with zoologists from the "Alexander Koenig" research museum in Bonn.
If the police find them, the smugglers will be brought to court.
The surviving reptiles, 16 of them, could be returned to their natural habitat in Mexico.
The "Alexander Koenig" Research Museum cooperates with customs officials primarily in the matter of illegal goods made from endangered animals killed in poaching, such as bags made of snake skin or fur.
Convention on International Traffic in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora from 1973 was signed by 182 countries and the European Union and includes about 6.000 animal and 30.000 plant species.
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