Europeans Caught in Attempt to Smuggle Tarantulas from Colombia

[Susej]

Here is a newspaper with Weber and another german, a polish guy and two venezuelab youngsters arrested for trying to smuggle tarantulas.

Cinco extranjeros fueron capturados en Nariño por intentar traficar tarántulas

Dos alemanes, un polaco y dos venezolanos fueron sorprendidos transportando tarántulas en cajas de plástico sin permisos expedidos por las autoridades colombianas. Los sujetos fueron dejados en libertad, pero vinculados a la investigación.

sostenibilidad.semana.com

so... illegal or not?

 

[Comatose]

Here is a newspaper with Weber and another german, a polish guy and two venezuelab youngsters arrested for trying to smuggle tarantulas.

Cinco extranjeros fueron capturados en Nariño por intentar traficar tarántulas

Dos alemanes, un polaco y dos venezolanos fueron sorprendidos transportando tarántulas en cajas de plástico sin permisos expedidos por las autoridades colombianas. Los sujetos fueron dejados en libertad, pero vinculados a la investigación.

sostenibilidad.semana.com

so... illegal or not?

Someone in South America sent my partner this or another article earlier today. These are certainly serious allegations.

 

[Liquifin]

Europe smuggles almost every tarantula into the hobby, so it's only a matter of time before someone gets caught.

 

[Frogdaddy]

Interesting but not surprising in the least unfortunately.
Europeans have a LONG history of smuggling wildlife. Lizards, frogs, spiders, birds, it doesn't matter.
I wonder if Xenthesis sp. Megasetae is amongst the species being smuggled?

 

[Matt Man]

Europe smuggles almost every tarantula into the hobby, so it's only a matter of time before someone gets caught.

which may explain why some exotics are stupidly cheap there.
No one in America would do experimental P Metallica communals

 

[HeartBum]

which may explain why some exotics are stupidly cheap there

*laughs in UK*

 

[Matt Man]

the 'illegal trade' will hurt the hobby. When we celebrate a 'sweet deal' we must acknowledge the damage it may be doing

 

[Rozwyrazowana]

which may explain why some exotics are stupidly cheap there

Maybe I'm naive, maybe I don't know where to look. I'm from Poland, and we have a lot of places offering tarantulas. And yes, they are dirt cheap when compared with the US prices. I follow some sellers on FB, I visit seller's websites, from time to time I read ads. There are not many adults for sale here, mostly slings and small sexed juvies. I've always thought that most smuggled/WC Ts are adults. I know that at some point there were Ts smuggled that were "patients 0" that started local breeding lines. I'm not defending what those guys did, I'm just surprised.

Also, I've heard that a lot of online sales of species that fall under CITES end with law enforcement visits, where they check if the seller has proper documents for the T.

I bought a tortoise 2 years ago and the seller told me few times how important it is for me to keep documents, he showed me that the tortoise is chipped and the chip's number is consistent with the number on the cites document.

 

[Matt Man]

there is a much higher reward to risk when smuggling slings. Smaller, easier to conceal and you can bring in a ton in the same size of a few adults. Lots of times when people catch wild Ts they dig up / find sacs / slings in the process.
I am old enough to remember when adult female Brachypelmas could be had for about $40. Pre CITES.
and this bust was Germans and Polish so this probably is fairly close to home

Europe smuggles almost every tarantula into the hobby, so it's only a matter of time before someone gets caught.

Do they lack the breeders we have here?

 

[Liquifin]

Do they lack the breeders we have here?

No, Europe has more breeders over there and they usually bring in any new species of tarantula into the hobby first whether through legal or non-legal methods. I don't agree with smuggling or illegal methods, but when government gets involved it usually causes a domino effect long term. At some point, we have to acknowledge that government will enforce more on wildlife regardless of tarantulas or not for better or worse.

Now in terms of breeders, EU has just about or more breeders compared to the US. But that's not the case the US suffers from. The US suffers from a lack of "experienced breeders". While people in the US tend to have a lot of breeders, a lot of them are not experienced enough. It's not bad seeing a person beginning to breed a tarantula for the first time ever, but the US really needs more experienced breeders. It would help a lot on deflating prices on some more desired, uncommon, or rare species so we don't have to rely on people importing more from the EU to inflate prices in the US.

 

[Matt Man]

No, Europe has more breeders over there and they usually bring in any new species of tarantula into the hobby first whether through legal or non-legal methods. I don't agree with smuggling or illegal methods, but when government gets involved it usually causes a domino effect long term. At some point, we have to acknowledge that government will enforce more on wildlife regardless of tarantulas or not for better or worse.

I was doing research and they say 23,000 Poecilotheria were imported into the US from 2006 - 2017, with 16,500 of them in the last 4 years. Since these things are usually under reported the numbers are probably low, but at that count that's roughly 4,000 a year

 

[Liquifin]

I was doing research and they say 23,000 Poecilotheria were imported into the US from 2006 - 2017, with 16,500 of them in the last 4 years. Since these things are usually under reported the numbers are probably low, but at that count that's roughly 4,000 a year

I'm not a statistics guy, I just know some things, but I don't know everything. There's always more for me to learn in this hobby for sure. That's some interesting statistics/info provided as I'm unaware of estimate numbers of imports.

 

[Matt Man]

when the clampdown came I got involved and wanted the skinny. Same thing happened with Brachypelma back in the day

 

[Jess S]

While you guys have a serious discussion on ethics.....

I'm just wondering who got the culprits to line up in order of height for the photo. Does he do school photography the rest of the time haha? The shorty is hanging his head in shame on the right lol

 

[Matt Man]

the shorty on the right I assume is one of the native kids

 

[Smotzer]

Yeah, I mean where do yall thhink all those pamphobeteus and xenethis are coming from.....not 'legal'? I cant read that language but I did see they identified at least some of them as Pampho's.

 

[mack1855]

I was doing research and they say 23,000 Poecilotheria were imported into the US from 2006 - 2017, with 16,500 of them in the last 4 years.

Can you link this source?.

 

[Matt Man]

I will have to find it. I have the notes from it from a long time ago

easier than I thought.

Beautiful Ornamental Tarantulas Win Global Protections From Pet Trade

Center for Biological Diversity: 15 Species to Get Safeguards Under CITES Treaty

biologicaldiversity.org

 

[Jess S]

the shorty on the right I assume is one of the native kids

2nd on the right I mean. Definitely a bad smuggler, has the pixelated face and a top a couple sizes too small. Proper smugglers wear baggy clothes they can fit more contraband under

 

[Matt Man]

English. https://www.financecolombia.com/ger...arrested-in-colombia-for-tarantula-smuggling/