Man attempts to smuggle reptiles by hiding them in his pants!
And get this... there were over 60 of them!
When you think about the concept of smuggling, we usually associate it with diamonds or drugs - something along those lines.
But the truth is that there is a market for anything these days. And people pay top dollar for things that might seem totally creepy and insane to you.
Things such as reptiles. Yes, it's a real trade and problem for authorities.
One man has been the talk of the town recently as he was caught trying to smuggle 60 creatures into the United States of America.
"José Perez, 30, from Oxnard, pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court for smuggling more than 1,700 reptiles into the U.S., including 60 reptiles hidden in his clothes." (ABC7)
According to a statement from the U.S Department of Justice, the reptiles smuggled included Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles, and Mexican beaded lizards.
Perez and his accomplices used social media as their source to smuggle the reptiles from Mexico and Hong Kong.
Some of the documents revealed that these reptiles were sold for upwards of $739,000 - that's R12-million plus!
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He raised red flags with customs when he was driving from Mexico into the States with 60 reptilian creatures stored away on his person.
Particularly his groin area and hidden in other parts of his clothing.
He told officials he was transporting his pet lizards, but turns out it was the likes of arboreal alligator lizards and Isthmian dwarf boas (which is a snake that changes colour and one of its defence mechanisms is bleeding from its eyes).
"Perez, who admitted two counts of smuggling, each of which carries up to 20 years in prison, and one of wildlife trafficking, which carries a maximum five-year jail term, will be sentenced on December 1." (MSN)
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