The customs police at Algerciras Port discovered two pythons being smuggled into the country in a suitcase around the end of last month.

The suitcase belonged to a Senegalese citizen who was attempting to smuggle the snakes into the country from Tangiers but his plan came unstuck when the suitcase went through a baggage scanner.

The police asked the man to open the suitcase so that it could be inspected. Snakes were revealed and whilst the man recognised that they were his, he could not provide any documents to indicate that they had been acquired legally.

The two specimens were a Python Regius and a Python Sebae, both also known by the more common name of “sod-off, nasty buggers.”

Both of these African snakes are included under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, for which reason he could face criminal prosecution. The snakes were handed over to an official animal-care centre.

(News: Algerciras, Cadiz, Andalucia)