Usually I can come up with a snappy one liner for these stories – but this one, this one just makes me think I may be skipping travel by plane for a long, long time.
Here we go. When airport security officials first saw the traveler, they said they were startled. The 28-year-old was going through security, but he seemed to have a huge problem – his stomach was alarmingly swollen. So much so, airport staff was concerned.
(This is your warning – if wild creatures with many legs are a problem, you will want to turn back now.)
Then they became suspicious. Very, very suspicious. And while judging another’s body isn’t right – this body had some strange and concerning lumps. The man was heading back home, with a stopover in France – and it turns out he had packed a bit more than just his clothes.
One of the 320 tarantulas. Photo by gob.pe
“We received a report from the security staff at the Jorge Chaves International Airport,” said Pilar Ayala, a biologist with Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR). “In the report they indicated that they found a Korean citizen in possession of wildlife specimens.”
The wannabe smuggler was told to lift his shirt up, and under it was two belts that had been covered in bags and packages containing the spiders and bugs, SERFOR said. Strapped to his chest was 35 adult tarantulas, 285 juvenile tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants.
I don’t recommend looking up the bullet ants. Just trust me on this one.
SERFOR had the “lucky” job of counting each of the smuggled creatures. They said that the adult tarantulas were in a large plastic container, and each was roughly the size of a human hand. The juveniles were stuffed into small tubes, with the ends covered so they couldn’t escape.
Juvenile tarantulas were stuffed in tubes. Photo by gob.pe
The smuggler failed magnificently at hiding the creatures. “It was observed that the citizen had placed these specimens in small Ziploc bags with filter paper,” Ayala said. “They were placed around his body, contained by two girdles.”
All of the creatures, said SERFOR wildlife specialist Walter Silva, were native to the Amazon. Tarantulas, Silva said, are an endangered species. Silva said he believes that the stolen bugs are part of a world-wide smuggling ring, and the creatures can bring in millions of dollars.
The man was arrested and an investigation by the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office was started. The bugs found a nice new home, with plenty of space for them to be bugs and spiders, SERFOR said.
I guess the best lesson learned here is that hundreds of bugs strapped to your chest is not the look to go for when you’re travelling, and it will, in fact, get you noticed. And arrested.
