Feds: Smuggler Stashed Pythons in His Pants

A New York City man has been hit with a federal smuggling charge, more than four years after authorities said he was caught with pythons in his pants. Authorities say Calvin Bautista, 36, tried to smuggle three Burmese pythons into the US on a bus from Canada but was caught at a border crossing in Champlain in July 2018, Syracuse.com reports. The snakes apparently weren't fully grown, unless Bautista had the world's most enormous pants—adults are usually longer than six feet long and one caught this year in Florida, where they are an invasive species wreaking havoc on native widlife, was almost 18 feet long. Federal regulations describe the pythons as "injurious to human beings," reports the AP. The charge against Bautista carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a Department of Justice press release. (More Burmese python stories.)