South Korean Man Arrested For Attempting To Smuggle 300 Tarantulas Strapped To His Body

The police detained the man who was travelling to South Korea via France. Peru’s environmental crimes prosecutor has opened an investigation.

A South Korean man was arrested as he was trying to leave Peru with 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants strapped to his body. The 28-year-old man was stopped at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima on November 8 because of his strangely swollen stomach, according tp CNN which cited a statement from the country’s national forestry and wildlife service (SERFOR) published November 13.

According to the New York Times, the bags were reinforced with strong adhesive tape and attached to two girdles wrapped around the man’s body. The man reportedly was carrying 35 adult tarantulas and 285 juvenile tarantulas.

These critters have likely been taken from the Madre de Dios region in the Peruvian Amazon. 

The tarantulas are on the country’s list of endangered species, Walter Silva, a wildlife specialist at SERFOR explained. “They were all illegally extracted and are part of illegal wildlife trafficking worth millions of dollars globally,” Silva said, as per CNN. 

The police detained the man who was travelling to South Korea via France. Peru’s environmental crimes prosecutor has opened an investigation.

According to the New York Times, a sting from a bullet ant can feel like being shot, and it can cause temporary paralysis. Whereas, centipedes have been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine. 

As per the report, Silva said cases of illegal wildlife trafficking tend to rise in the weeks before Christmas. The smuggled animals can fetch high prices around this time. Endangered tarantulas are considered for collectors. Though the man wasn’t carrying that many adult spiders, females of breeding age can be more valuable. The younger spiders likely rise in value, since tarantulas can live for up to 30 years.

Peru is not the country facing problems with wildlife trafficking.

In December 2021, authorities in Colombia seized at least 232 tarantulas, 67 cockroaches, nine spider eggs, and a scorpion with seven of its young, all hidden in a suitcase at the El Dorado airport in Bogota.

The exotic pet trade is a multibillion-dollar industry, and the global wildlife trade is worth between $30 and $43 billion annually, New York Times cited a 2022 report by the Animal Legal & Historical Center at Michigan State University’s Law School. The author of the report said that about $23 billion of that share is legal.