By Tim Binnall
Authorities in Colombia busted a pair of smugglers attempting to leave the country with a slew creepy creatures that included a staggering 232 spiders and dozens of cockroaches. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Environment, the wild bust occurred this past Thursday at the El Dorado International Airport in the capital city of Bogota when security officers at the site became suspicious of some luggage belonging to two German travelers who were heading home. Upon searching the bags, officials discovered that they contained an array of plastic containers filled with a jaw-dropping array of native creatures.
All told, investigators found an astounding haul of 309 animals consisting of "232 spiders, a scorpion with 7 young, nine spider eggs,and 67 cockroaches" in the plastic containers that had been haphazardly hidden alongside some rolls of film. Although the two busted tourists claimed that they were taking the creatures back to Germany "for academic purposes," the Ministry of Environment wasn't buying that excuse as the acquisition of the animals and the subsequent clandestine transportation of the creatures "was being carried out without the respective permits, authorizations or environmental licenses."
Experts at the Ministry of Environment ultimately determined that the creatures had been collected from the town of San Luis de Gaceno and they are currently working on determining the best course of action as to how to "release or relocate" the native scorpion, spiders, and cockroaches. In announcing the bust, the agency noted that it is just the latest in a string of such incidents which, so far in 2021, have seen an incredible 11,000 such illegally harvested specimens recovered by authorities. As for the two German travelers, they were promptly arrested and could now face stiff penalties including restitution or possible jail time for rather brazen smuggling operation.