Man tries smuggling hundreds of tarantulas from Peru by strapping them to his body
FILE - A tarantula which was recovered after a man attempted to smuggle them out of Peru. (SERFOR)
Airport officials in Peru arrested a man who attempted to smuggle hundreds of tarantulas and over 100 centipedes that were in bags strapped to his body, according to Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR).
The man was stopped at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport on Nov. 8 after officials noticed his stomach appeared to be abnormally swollen.
Officials asked the man, identified as a 28-year-old from South Korea, to lift his shirt and found he was wearing two belts around his abdomen which had ziplock bags with the animals inside them.
SERFOR specialists recovered 35 adult tarantulas, 285 juvenile tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants.
All the animals were native to the Peruvian Amazon, according to Walter Silva, a wildlife specialist at SERFOR.
The tarantulas were also identified as an endangered species.
"All were extracted illegally and are part of the illegal wildlife trafficking that moves millions of dollars in the world," Silva said in a news release.
When it gets closer to the holidays, illegal wildlife trafficking and the prices for these animals tend to go up and people like to gift them as pets, officials said.