Traveler caught trying to smuggle 104 live snakes in his pants

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A traveler was recently arrested for attempting to smuggle over 100 live snakes in his trousers through customs at Futian Port, a checkpoint between mainland China and Hong Kong, the agency said on Tuesday.

The man was trying to pass through Shenzhen Huanggang Customs in the “no declaration channel” but was stopped by customs officers, according to a Weibo post by the Chengdu Huanggang Chamber of Commerce.

Upon inspection, officers found six “rope canvas bags sealed with adhesive tape” in the passenger’s pants pockets.

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Inside the bags were a total of 104 live snakes, including milk snakes, western pig-nosed snakes, corn brocade snakes, Texas rat snakes and cow snakes, of which are non-native to China and non-venomous. In the video shared on Weibo, two customs officers are holding up the bags containing handfuls of small snakes moving around.

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China is notorious for being the largest market for illegal wildlife trafficking, where people try to smuggle in wild animals, such as ivory or rhino horns.

In May, Transportation Security Administration agents at Miami International Airport stopped a passenger who had two small snakes in a bag in his pants. The snakes were turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com.