Londoner caught with 1000 spiders at Rio airport
Sharon MillerA pet-shop owner as been apprehended by Rio police after he was caught attempting to smuggle 1,000 live spiders out of Brazil in his luggage.
The British national, who has not been named, was stopped on Wednesday night as he was about to board a flight from Rio de Janeiro’s international airport bound for Europe.
Authorities were called in after an X-ray scan revealed unusual characteristics about two of the passenger’s baggage.
Deputy head of airport police Rafael Potsch Andreata said the British man is a London petshop owner who sells live spiders. Andreata said the petshop owner revealed to police that the spiders were intended for his London shop.
He added that police authorities are currently investigating whether he had carried out this before and whether he was he was planning to use them for their poison which is extracted and sold as medicine.
Brazilian federal police released a photographic image depicting a large brown tarantula on top of a pile of the small white boxes which were used to smuggle the spiders.
If convicted of animal trafficking, the man could face up to a year in prison as well as a £1.5m fine.
Airport police claimed that the seizure represented the largest ever bust of illegal wildlife trafficking at the Rio airport, which serves the US, Europe, Africa an the rest of South America on a daily basis with regular flights.
According to the Brazilian Government, at least 10 million wild animals are taken from Brazil’s jungles every year and 50,000 of these are rescued from the hands of traffickers.
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Filed under Travel News, UK News, World News