Man arrested at Chinese border for smuggling 104 live snakes in his pants

A man who tried to smuggle 104 live snakes in his pants was arrested at the Chinese border this week, according to the country’s customs authorities.

The animal trafficker had tried to bypass a “non-reporting channel” at a port between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, authorities said in a statement Tuesday.

Upon inspection of his pants, officers discovered six sealed bags containing a variety of exotic snakes, including milk snakes, western hognose snakes, corn snakes, Texas rat snakes and bull snakes.

An accompanying video showed two border agents holding up large clear bags filled with live, multi-colored reptiles, often sought after as exotic pets.

Although none of the snakes are venomous, at least four species are considered foreign to China, which could violate China’s biosafety law.

Customs authorities said they would hold the man legally responsible in accordance with the law, without specifying an exact penalty.

Although it is also illegal to transport or deliver live animals to China, such cases are not uncommon.

At the same crossing point in 2023, a woman was reportedly arrested while trying to smuggle five pet snakes hidden in her bra.

Earlier this month, customs reported an attempt to smuggle more than 400 hermit crabs and land crabs through Shanghai’s Pudong airport. A person was also arrested after entering a border checkpoint from Macau with bags containing nearly 20 endangered turtles.

Despite efforts to combat the trade, China is the world’s top destination for illegal wildlife trafficking, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, a project funded by the governments of the United States and the European Union.

The index also identified Hong Kong as a major hub for re-exporters of the illegal wildlife trade due to “weak traceability systems”.

In March, the U.S. Justice Department charged a Hong Kong man with attempting to smuggle 40 protected turtles from the United States to Hong Kong in 2023. Court documents alleged he had already smuggled more than 1,500 turtles, with a street value of more than $2 million.

Between 2010 and 2020, Hong Kong customs seized more than HK$1 billion ($128 million) worth of trafficked wildlife products, including nearly 34 tonnes of ivory, according to the World Wildlife Fund.