U.S. federal agents have arrested a man from Los Angeles County on a charge of importing three king cobra snakes in potato chip cans, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced Tuesday.
Rodrigo Franco of Monterey Park was arrested by agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on Tuesday morning and charged with one count of illegally importing merchandise into the country.
Coverage of snakes on Globalnews.ca:
Staff with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) examined a parcel that was sent from Hong Kong through the U.S. Postal Service on March 2, according to an affidavit supporting a criminal complaint that was filed on July 21.
In the package, the agency found three live king cobras, one of the most venomous snakes on the planet, in potato chip canisters; each of the snakes was about two feet long.
The package also contained three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles, according to the attorney’s office.
On the same day that the package was discovered, Franco allegedly mailed six protected turtles from the U.S. to Hong Kong. They were ornate box turtles, desert box turtles and three-toed box turtles.
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The king cobras were seized and the albino soft-shelled turtles were delivered to Franco’s home by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Once they were delivered, a search warrant was executed at the home by agents with USFWS and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
Agents found the package that had come from Hong Kong in a kid’s bedroom; in that room, they also found a tank that housed a baby Morlet’s crocodile and other tanks that contained alligator snapping turtles and five diamond back terrapins.
All of these animals are protected species, the affidavit said.
Franco told authorities that he previously received two separate shipments containing 20 king cobras. But all of those snakes died while they were being delivered.
Authorities also uncovered evidence on Franco’s phone showing that he had spoken with a contact in Asia about shipping snakes and turtles between there and the U.S.
He allegedly planned on giving five king cobras to a person who was related to his Asian contact.
The maximum sentence for the smuggling charge that Franco faces is 20 years in a federal prison.
None of the allegations have been proven in court; every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Snakes and geckos
But this is far from the first time that one of the world’s most poisonous snakes has been sent through the mail.
Earlier this month, CBP officers seized a package at the John F. Kennedy International Mail Facility (IMF) that contained five juvenile king cobras and three geckos.
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