When the American man intercepted at the end of February at the US-Mexico border near San Diego, in California, customs officials found 52 animals hidden in his body.
The smuggler had put the reptiles, consisting of nine snakes and 43 horned lizards, in small plastic bags and hid them “under his jacket, in the pockets of his pants, and between his thighs,” US Customs said in a statement.
“Smugglers are willing to try anything to be able to smuggle the items they have, or in this case, live reptiles, to the other side of the border,” Sidney Akee, a San Diego customs official, told AFP.
The animals, a number of which belong to endangered categories, were placed under surveillance in parallel with the arrest of the smuggler.
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