New Delhi, Dec. 2: Acting on a tip-off by wildlife activists, the customs department today detained two foreigners with three shahtoosh shawls.

Shahtoosh shawls are banned under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and possession is punishable with a jail term. An international ban is also in place on the shawls, made from the wool of the Tibetan antelope, a highly endangered species.

Italian Ita Bigelli Cristina and Spanish citizen Lopez Fonta Maria Teresa were detained early this morning as they were trying to board an Air-India flight to Frankfurt and then on to Spain. A third woman travelling with them decided to stay back.

They have not been formally charged for possession of the shawls and are expected to leave the country quietly by early Friday morning.

Sources in the Wildlife Trust of India, an NGO campaigning against shahtoosh shawls, indicated there was political pressure at play. Customs authorities were not available for comment.

The NGO officials said a survey this February of shops selling shawls in the luxury hotels of Delhi showed most of them were aware of the penalties for selling shahtoosh and did not stock them. Further investigation showed some shops and shawl merchants were clandestinely selling them.

?Earlier, we had used Indian and foreign nationals as decoys. But now the merchants have become very clever and operate only on trust. The important groups of foreigners would be identified and taken to farmhouses or certain places, where they would be shown stocks of shahtoosh shawls for sale,? said an official of the NGO.