Authorities at an airport in Callao, Peru, caught three travelers trying to smuggle more than 3,000 tarantulas packed inside socks stuffed in their checked luggage. The discovery was made Nov. 3 as the travelers were checking in for a flight to Germany.
The three suitcases belonged to two German citizens and one Polish citizen, according to SERFOR, Peru’s National Forestry and Wildlife Service. Officials said the seizure followed an anonymous tip that triggered the search.
Each suitcase contained between 15 and 22 socks, with spiders of different species and ages concealed inside — eggs, young spiders, and fully grown adults among them.
Cora Suarez, a wildlife forestry control technician with SERFOR, said the appeal to buyers is straightforward.
“These species are attractive because of the colors, because of the size and, more than anything, because they can be intended for collectors,” Suarez said in Spanish.
Peru’s environmental crimes police detained all three travelers at the airport. They now face criminal proceedings led by a specialized environmental prosecutor’s office.
Keith Jeffries, an Orlando-based vice president of K2 Security Screening Group and a former federal security director at Los Angeles International Airport, has said wildlife smuggling attempts are driven by demand.
“If there’s a market for it, people will attempt to smuggle it,” Jeffries said. “We’ve seen this before many times. It happens more frequently than any of us would like.”
Jeffries noted that airport screening priorities differ by country and agency. In the United States, Transportation Security Administration officers are focused on aviation security threats like weapons and explosives, not on detecting smuggled wildlife, he said.
Socks have apparently become a go-to hiding method for smugglers moving live animals. In August, a 23-year-old man was arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport after officials found roughly 200 lizards packed inside 22 pairs of socks in his bag. Nine were Mexican alligator lizards, an endangered species under international trade restrictions that can sell for hundreds of dollars each in Japan.
Jeffries has also recounted other unusual wildlife seizures from his time with the TSA, including exotic turtles and nearly 100 exotic birds discovered in checked luggage.
