Ecotourism guide gets probation for smuggling snakes onto planes

TYLER, Texas – A Texas man who admitted to taking snakes onto planes will not have to serve time in a prison.

A federal judge Monday sentenced William Wylly Lamar of Tyler to three years of probation. The 63-year-old ecotourism guide pleaded guilty in June to importing wildlife taken in violation of foreign law.

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Lamar admitted smuggling snakes on several planes from Peru to the United States. Prosecutors say he bought the seven live snakes in August 2012 in a market in Lima, Peru, and smuggled them in his jacket on flights from Lima to Miami, then to Dallas.

Game wardens seized the snakes from Lamar’s home in Tyler. Peruvian law prohibits the exportation of wild live animals coming from the forest or jungle unless the exporter has the proper paperwork.