A man was sentenced after he tried to smuggle three Burmese pythons in his pants while crossing the border from Canada to the United States, according to officials.
Calvin Bautista, a 38-year-old man from Richmond Hill, New York, was sentenced this week to one year of probation and fined $5,000 after he attempted to smuggle the pythons into the country through the Champlain Port of Entry in New York on July 15, 2018, while riding a Greyhound bus, states the United States Attorney's office, Northern District of New York in a press release.
He pleaded guilty in court in June 2023, eight months before he was sentenced. The maximum term for the crime he committed is "20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years," states the attorney's office.
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Customs and Border Protection officers noticed weird lumps in the man's pants while reviewing his passport and conducting a border search and soon discovered the slithery stowaways.
"The young adult snakes were in bags attached to Bautista’s pants near his inner thigh," says the press release.
The pythons are not native to the U.S. and are considered to be invasive species. The attorney's office states that Bautista didn't obtain the permits he needed to import the snakes.
According to the United States Geological Survey, Burmese pythons in South Florida are "one of the most concerning invasive species in Everglades National Park."
According to the science bureau, the pythons are the cause of drastic declines in the species populations of raccoons, which dropped by 99.3%; opossums, 98.9%; and bobcats, 87.5% since 1997.
"The mammals that have declined most significantly have been regularly found in the stomachs of Burmese pythons removed from Everglades National Park and elsewhere in Florida," states the bureau.
Raccoons and opossums are more vulnerable because they tend to look for food around the waters pythons inhabit.
Contributing: Orlando Mayorquin, USA TODAY
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