A man has been caught trying to smuggle more than 100 live snakes through an airport into mainland China.
The passenger, who hasn’t been named by authorities, wasn’t happy to see airport security when they stopped him trying to leave Hong Kong and enter the border city of Shenzhen on Tuesday.
He was trying to walk through the ‘nothing to declare’ gate when he was stopped.
China Customs say they found several bags hidden in the pockets of his trousers, sealed with tape, containing 104 snakes.
The snakes were a variety of species, including milk snakes and corn snakes, and many of them were non-native.
A statement from China customs said: ‘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.
‘Once opened, each bag was found to contain living snakes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours.
‘Those who break the rules will be … held liable in accordance with the law.’
China is one of the world’s biggest hubs for animal trafficking, but authorities have been cracking down on the trade more recently.
Strict biosecurity and disease control rules forbid anyone bringing non-native species into China without permission.
But this isn’t the first attempt to smuggle animals into the country in recent months.
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Last December a man was caught with two otters and a prairie dog down his trousers, another man tried to smuggle 14 snakes through customs last August, and earlier this year a woman tried to transport more than 400 beetles in her suitcase.
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