A man hid 3 pythons in his pants and tried to smuggle them across the US border.
'15.02.2024'
Alina Prikhodko
On Wednesday, February 14, a New York man was sentenced to one year of probation and a $5 fine for smuggling Burmese pythons. According to Fox News, in 2018, he transported pythons from Canada to the United States in his pants.
Kelvin Bautista of Richmond Hill, New York, was sentenced after he admitted to smuggling. He attempted to smuggle three Burmese pythons into the United States on a bus traveling from Montreal to New York on July 15, 2018. The bus in which the defendant was traveling was traveling through the Champlain Port of Entry in Clinton County, New York.
New York man who smuggled pythons into the US by hiding them in his pants sentenced to probation, fined $5k https://t.co/i8T7BuDCKw
- Fox News (@FoxNews) February 15, 2024
The pythons were discovered by Customs and Border Protection officers while they were checking Bautista's passport and conducting a border inspection. The reptiles were in snake bags attached to the smuggler's trousers in the area of the inner thigh.
Burmese pythons are not native to North America and are considered an invasive species, and Bautista did not have the permits or paperwork required to bring them into the country.
