A man has been arrested for attempting to smuggle over 100 live snakes into mainland China by stuffing them inside his pants, the country’s customs authority said.
The unnamed traveler was detained by customs officers as he tried to sneak out of semi-autonomous Hong Kong and into the border city of Shenzhen, China Customs said in a statement on Tuesday.
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“Upon inspection, customs officers discovered that the pockets of the trousers the passenger was wearing were packed with six canvas drawstring bags and sealed with tape,” the statement said.
“Once opened, each bag was found to contain living snakes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours,” it added.
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The statement said officers seized 104 of the scaly reptiles, including milk snakes and corn snakes, many of which were non-native species.
An accompanying video showed two border agents peering into transparent plastic bags crammed with squirming red, pink and white snakes.
According to the, China is one of the largest animal-trafficking markets in the world, though the authorities have begun to crack down on such trade in recent times.
Under China’s biosecurity and disease control laws, people are not allowed to bring in foreign species without permission.
“Those who violate regulations shall be… held liable under the law,” the customs authority warned without giving out the man’s punishment.
