247 snakes, reptiles found in Madrid-bound suitcase




"A Czech national could face 10 years in prison after Buenos Aires airport screeners found 247 living snakes and reptiles -- including poisonous vipers -- in the bulging suitcase he tried to check on a flight to Madrid, Agence France-Presse says.

The "organic substances moving inside" were packed in clear plastic containers, workers at the Iberia Airlines desk at Ezeiza Airport discovered after the bag was X-rayed, AFP says, citing local media. Some are reported to be extremely rare and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Among the writhing cargo were South American pit vipers, yararas and several young boas. Two snakes were dead, and authorities said more would have died from lack of oxygen had they been loaded onto the plane.

Karel Abelovsky, 51, was charged with attempted smuggling.

The incident happened Dec. 7 but was just reported today (Dec 26)."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/12/247-snakes-reptiles-found-in-madrid-bound-suitcase/1

A couple weeks old, but still new enough. I'm sure this is how a real life version of the movie would be caused to happen.

Oh wow, that's interesting. I'm surprised that he managed to get all of those on the plane without being noticed. xD

I know other countries don't have as much security as our airports, but still, I would've thought somebody would have seen.

lolwtf?

This guy really wanted to recreate the movie, didn't he? XD

This guy was smart enough not to jam reptiles down his pants, at least. Now the guy who did... We call him snake pants.

Wonder if this guy jammed an anaconda down his pants...

I might have expected this from someone in the 18-24 age group, but 51? That's a bit of a surprise. Maybe they don't go outside enough?

A 51 years old man? Really? 0_o

Oh god, some people are insane and probably obsessed by what they saw on TV or in a movie. I heard a young man killed his girlfriend like in the movie Scream, I saw some teenagers doing the crazy jokes that we can see in the show Jackass or some wrestling moves, risking their life each time but there... it's completely insane and silly really, even the examples I said before.

Yes, the movie reference is mandatory here. Thank you, Cyro. There's nothing wrong with having a mild obsession with snakes; but when you have nearly 250 of them, they need to stay at a reptile exhibit. Seriously, dude, go collect some stamps or something. Get a better hobby.

Wow, how did he think that many snakes would get through screening? Poor things, I hope the rest of them continued to be okay.
I also wonder how much money he would have been offered to smuggle endangered species... I'm betting that it was quite a large amount.

If I had to guess, the guy was in the dump, financially, and was offered to make a bit of cash smuggling Jake the Snake and his friends across a border or two. At 51 he probably had nothing to lose, and if that's the case them jail/prison would be better for him.

That is something you don't hear everyday. Well, that's where the movie Snakes on a Plane comes in, no? That is ridiculous how many reptiles have been on that plane. I can't imagine how he got it in there.

Well I have two things to say about this. 

It wasn't at the security point. They X-ray all your luggage at airports after you check them in and before they get loaded up on a plane. They saw what was in his, looked at the owner info, and dragged his ass from wherever he was to a holding area. And then to jail.

Wow, that's...uh.. interesting.

I mean, yeah, why didn't anyone spot them? You probably could hear the noises if they were alive, right? It's funny but sad what people do these days.

Wow i heard about this case i ended up doing the same thing Cyro did and that was copied and paste but it was on a chat site but this case is a lot like snake on a plane i wonder how he never got bitten by one of them as he was trying to put them in the case

I remember that I smuggled 400 snakes on the plane.The luggage went through the X-ray machine but before that a poisonous snake came out and bit the cord for the X-ray machine.I saw the snake out so I scurried it in the suite case.The X-ray machine did not pick this up as the snake broke it.Halfway through the flight 4 snakes became ill so I asked for some food went back to a private area and feed and cared for those 4 as much as possible.Luckily someone smuggled a heart monitor for snakes on the flight so I used that to see if the snakes would make it.I sat in my seat for about 4 hours till I ran back to the private area because I heard the machine go off and saw the snakes have died.I found snake paddles from that same guy that had the Snake heart monitor.I shocked them for 40 minutes then I stopped and they died there.I flushed them down the toilet and did a 30 minute moment of silence before returning to my seat.(I was with my family)But luckily we where over North Korea so a research lab cloned those 4 back to normal.I went to go pick them up when our flight had to stop but the box fell open with resulted me into squishing those 4 snakes.At the end they couldn't be cloned again.They where finished for good.After I squished those 4 snakes the other 396 got hold of some chocolate.We got back to the flight and saw the snakes where ill so I held them in my arms.About 3 hours later the snakes died in my arms.I shocked them till we got back to our airport.I shocked them for 12 hours but it didn't work.I took them to a snake specialist to get them alive again.3 hours later after the surgery all but one snake died.

Austin96 : Cool story bro.

My friend knew about the story (the original), he told me a little more about it but I can't remember what he said.

At 51 Years Old He Probably Wanted A Good Thrill In His Life. Maybe He Could've Done Something Else Though.

If the guy's name was David Hayter, I'd laugh.


In the case that it is.... I'll still laugh. That's some dedication there, to be sure. (Maybe he was seeking a thrill? If so, why snakes? Why make fun of THAT movie? Why not the movie Airplane!?)