Airport Nabs Brit With 1,000 Spiders

Arachnid smuggler could get jail, $2M fine
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2009 2:05 AM CST
Airport Nabs Brit With 1,000 Spiders
This photo released by the Brazilian police shows a tarantula and the boxes the smuggler kept the spiders in.   (Comunicaciones Polic a Federal )

A British pet shop owner was nabbed at the airport in Rio de Janiero this week after customs officers found 1,000 live spiders in his checked baggage. Police say it's the biggest seizure of wildlife ever made at the airport. The spider-smuggler now faces up to a year in jail and a $2 million fine if convicted of animal trafficking, the Guardian reports. The spiders were sent to Brazil's national museum.
(More Brazil stories.)

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