Man tries to sneak 7 snakes and 3 tortoises in pants

A man was caught with exotic snakes and tortoises stuffed in his pants trying to board a flight from Miami to Brazil, an official of the US transportation security has said.

It was almost a case of snakes on a plane but as a result of security intervention, the man was caught with seven exotic snakes and three tortoises stuffed in his pants in a nylon bag, Sun Sentinel newspaper reported.

Using a body scanner, Transportation Security Administration officers in Miami spotted all the reptiles stuffed inside nylon bags concealed in his pants.

The unidentified man was trying to get through a checkpoint on his way to Brazil on TAM Airlines, TSA spokesman Jonathon Allen, said yesterday.

US Department of Fish and Wildlife officers took custody of the animals and arrested the passenger.

It's not the airlines' first weird wildlife encounter. In 2007, a man tried to smuggle a tiny monkey under his shirt on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to New York. And a woman attempted to sneak 75 live snakes in Sweden in 1996.