SYDNEY, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP) – Australian customs officers
got more than they bargained for when two shoe boxes arrived from Europe with venomous snakes, exotic spiders and scorpions found slithering inside the “creep crawly cargo”.
The unusual discovery was made at Melbourne last month in two boxes marked shoes sent through the mail in a consignment identified as coming from northern Europe.
The parcel included six venomous vipers native to Southeast Asia, three ball pythons, nine large tarantulas from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, plus Asian forest scorpions.
Australian Border Force officers, in a statement Tuesday headlined “Creepy crawly cargo”, said it was a serious issue as they posed a high biosecurity risk because they can carry pests and diseases that aren’t present Down Under.
But the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources also saw the lighter
side.
“This detection appears to be a clear attempt to get around the rules that are in place to protect us all,” said Lyn O’Connell, a department official responsible for biosecurity.