Authorities arrested a man in Peru after his bulging clothes gave him — and the hundreds of tarantulas strapped to his body — away, as he attempted to leave the country with them.
Security officials at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport stopped the alleged smuggler, a 28-year-old South Korean man, on Nov. 8 because his stomach appeared abnormally swollen while he was passing through security, Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) said in a press release.
The man, who was not identified, was asked to lift his shirt, revealing two belts that had been adorned with camouflaged bags and packages containing tarantulas and other bugs, according to the wildlife service.
Specialists with the government agency later tallied the concealed critters, counting 35 adult tarantulas, 285 juvenile tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants.
The adult tarantulas were described as …