A live tiger cub was found drugged and hidden among stuffed-tiger

 toys in the luggage of a woman at Bangkok's airport, a wildlife

 smuggling watchdog group reported Thursday.

The Thai woman, whose name was not released, was trying to 

board a flight to Iran on Sunday when she had trouble checking

 in her oversized bag, the monitoring network TRAFFIC said in a statement.

Airport staff "suspected something amiss when they scanned the bag 

and X-ray images showed an item resembling a real cat," the group stated.

Thai officials are investigating whether the two-month-old cub was caught in

 the wild or bred in captivity, as well as where it came from and the suspect's

 intended final destination. Tiger populations throughout Asia "are critically

 threatened by poaching and trade to meet the international demand for tiger 

parts, products and, as illustrated in this case, live tigers," said TRAFFIC, 

some of whose funds come from governments around the world.

Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s deputy regional director, 

praised various Thai and U.S. agencies for working to clamp down on 

wildlife smuggling. but added: "If people are trying to smuggle live tigers 

in their check-in luggage, they obviously think wildlife smuggling is 

something easy to get away with and do not fear reprimand. "Only sustained pressure

 on wildlife traffickers and serious penalties can change that," he added.