Trovati 19 pitoni dentro stecche di sigarette ispezionate all´aeroporto di Brisbane

[Zarco]

Snakes alive an airport surprise

Customs officers were suspicious when they saw a traveller arriving at Brisbane International Airport at the weekend wearing a bulky, long-sleeved jacket.

But they did not suspect that he was concealing 19 pythons in his clothing.

Customs officers discovered the colourful miniature snakes – hidden in cigarette boxes and worn in a vest – on Saturday afternoon, just hours after another passenger was charged with importing 52 bird eggs hidden inside a body vest.

Customs investigations Queensland manager Tom Ramsay said the two discoveries were being treated as separate incidents, although both men had arrived from Singapore.

He said Customs officers found the bird eggs when they searched a 48-year-old man on Saturday morning.

When officers saw another man wearing wintry clothing in the afternoon, they selected him for a baggage inspection.

Expecting to find more eggs, they were surprised to find snakes hidden inside cigarette packets in a series of rectangular pockets.

"When you see cigarette packs you don't expect to find snakes inside," Mr Ramsay said. "Seeing as they'd found eggs in the morning we weren't expecting there to be snakes in there."

Mr Ramsay said the specific breed of the snakes had not been determined, but they could be worth up to $10,000 each.

He said the bird eggs would also be tested, but they were all "viable eggs" and both they and the snakes posed a quarantine risk to Australia.

A 47-year-old man, believed to be Indonesian, and the 48-year-old from NSW, were arrested after the incidents and charged with importing a regulated live species without a permit.

Both men face a $110,000 fine and 10 years' jail.

They will appear before the Brisbane Magistrate's Court today.

Mr Ramsay said the pythons could be donated to a museum or repatriated.

Fonte: Jennifer Dudley (The Courier-Mail - 12/09/2004)

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In Origine postato da Zarco
Both men face a $110,000 fine and 10 years' jail.

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