BANGKOK — A Sri Lankan man is accused of trying to illegally smuggle animals out of Thailand after airport security reported finding snakes in his underwear, officials said.
The Wildlife Crime Intelligence Center received a tip that a known wildlife trafficker was arriving on a Thai Airways flight in Bangkok on July 1, according to a July 3 news Facebook post from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
The man had been previously arrested on wildlife crimes in Sri Lanka in 2024, and had in the past tried to move wolves, meerkats, black cockatoos, sugar gliders, porcupines, ball pythons, iguanas, frogs, salamanders and turtles, officials said.
The day after landing in Bangkok, the man left his accommodation in a taxi and arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport, officials said.
He checked into his flight and tagged his luggage, then moved through the security checkpoint, according to the post.
His suitcase passed through the checkpoint without incident, but as officials performed a body search, they found his underwear to be full.
Three ball pythons were hidden in a soft mesh bag, with different variations of color, photos show.
Three ball pythons were found in a soft mesh bag in the man’s underwear, officials said. Screengrab from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation
Ball pythons require import and export permits, meaning moving them across the border without proper documentation is a crime, officials said.
The man was charged with attempting to export protected wildlife without permission from the Director-General, and attempting to export items from the Kingdom that had not undergone customs clearance, according to the post.
The man was taken into custody, officials said.
Ball pythons, the smallest of Africa’s pythons, are a common pet for snake aficionados, according to the Sacramento Zoo.
They can grow to between 3 and 5 feet long, and are typically between 2 and 4 pounds, the zoo says, living about 10 years in the wild but nearly 50 years in captivity.
Chat GPT, an AI chatbot, was used to translate the Facebook post from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
By IRENE WRIGHT/McClatchy News
Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.
