bbc.com
Not just in bags but bags with one paper side for air strapped to the inside of a girdle strapped to his body, no getting that off in a hurry if one did sting him or escape. As I said desperate. To risk what he did for money he probably wouldnt of even been given, ( I mean whats he going to do tell the law? ) he must be in a very poor situation. Its sad stuff all round.
35 adult Ts, 285 juvies and slings, and 110 centipedes and bullet ants...Smuggler caught with hundreds of tarantulas strapped to body in Peru
A 28-year-old was man detained in Lima, accused of trying to transport endangered spiders, centipedes and ants from Peru to South Korea.
I don't think it had anything to do with desperation. He was from South Korea so he did fly there. I'm trying to picture this guy at the airport trying to leave the country like this keeping a straight face.
I agree with that.
thats really not the smartest kind of air-travel smuggling, makes you wonder if he is a courier or patsy
There is. Stop buying tarantulas and make the risk not worth it. Smuggling in all forms, mostly conducted by European countries, has been an open secret in the tarantula keeping community for at least the two decades I've been a part of it.
There are no species of tarantula in the State of Texas- or in the United States- that is considered endangered or protected by the Endangered Species Act. What makes collecting in Texas tricky is all of the municipal and state laws that make it illegal to collect on private property (trespassing), nature preserves, etc. In addition, Aphonopelma moderaturm is located along the Texas-Mexico border so running into border patrol is likely. Violating any law from the municipal level to the state level in the course of collecting wildlife for export violates the federal Lacey Act.
They do yes on permits to ship but that's as far as I know on the matter.
Of course expecting everyone to stop buying tarantulas is unrealistic, but it is the only way to stop smuggling for good. As long as there is a market for foreign goods, including wildlife, there will always be people smuggling it to avoid the high costs, procedures, and sometimes to avoid flat out bans to do things legally. When it comes to tarantulas specifically, sometimes they are smuggled due to ignorance of the laws of the country the target species are endemic to. A more realistic approach, but still not perfect, is to ask for importation paperwork and/or collection permits from the people selling tarantulas. For example, if you see a seller advertising a Theraphosinae sp. "Stawberry Sherbert" from Peru (or whatever), don't buy it unless the seller can produce a copy of any paperwork from the Peruvian government that states they were legally collected and exported. Someone up the supply chain should have paperwork from the source country the exotic wildlife comes from, but if they don't it should be avoided.