Chinese customs officers detained a smuggler: the man tried to smuggle more than a hundred live snakes in his own trousers – the resourcefulness of businessmen truly knows no bounds.
He attempted to smuggle the peculiar cargo from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to the border city of Shenzhen in China, writes The Guardian, citing a customs service report:
“During the inspection, customs officers found six plastic bags with drawstrings, sealed with tape, in the pockets of the pants the passenger was wearing. In each of them they found live snakes of different shapes, sizes and colors.”
In total, customs officers seized 104 snakes, including South American corn snakes and milk snakes, the latter of which are common in Canada, the eastern United States, Mexico and Colombia.
According to customs officials, many of the reptiles were non-native species, which are prohibited from being transported in China without permission for biosecurity and disease control reasons. Customs said:
“Anyone who violates the rules will be held accountable under the law.”
China is considered one of the world's largest centers of animal trafficking, but in recent years the authorities have begun to actively combat this type of illegal activity. And snakes in such an intimate place, as it turns out, are far from the first case. In February 2024, a man was convicted in the United States for attempting to smuggle three Burmese pythons – some of the largest snakes in the world – from Canada in his… pants.
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