Miami: Man arrested trying to smuggle python on a plane by hiding it inside of a computer
A man tried to bring a python onto a plane in Miami by hiding it inside a computer hard drive, according to a news report. He and the snake did not make the Barbados-bound flight, authorities said.
The incident unfolded Sunday at a screening area at Miami International Airport. According to the Miami Herald, a Transportation Security Administration officer noticed something odd inside a piece of checked luggage.
Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, told the newspaper that a bomb expert then examined the bag and found the python — still alive — inside the hard drive.
In a Twitter message, Koshetz said the snake was “artfully concealed” inside the hard drive.
“This organic mass was not explosive,” she tweeted, “but it shows you can’t hide any threat from us.”
photo/ TSA
The snake, Koshetz told the paper, was “obviously not an imminent terrorist threat.” But, she said it was a “possible wildlife threat.”Animals have gotten loose on planes and have been known to “chew through wires with fatal results,” she said.
The snake was taken into custody by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the man was fined.
Authorities did not release the man’s name.
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REAL LIFE “SNAKES ON A PLANE” STORY: Australia story HERE
