1,500 tarantulas found in cake boxes at German airport: custom officers ‘speechless'
Cologne customs spokesman Jens Ahland said on Monday that the package, which came from Vietnam, had a 'distinctive smell' that did not match the declared 7kg (15lbs) of cakes.
Crammed into small plastic containers and hidden in cake packaging, the venomous spiders were apparently intended for a recipient in the western German Sauerland region.
'My colleagues at the airport are regularly surprised by prohibited package contents from all over the world, but finding around 1,500 small plastic containers with young tarantulas in this package left even the most experienced among them speechless,' Ahland said in a statement.
Ahland said it was an 'extraordinary seizure', but it had saddened authorities to see what some people do to animals for profit. A number of the animals had died, while the remaining living spiders were handed over to specialists.
The chocolate sponge-cake boxes the tarantulas were shipped in to Cologne Bonn airport, western Germany. Photo: Haupzollamt Koeln/AP
Ahland said that the estimated value of the shipment was being assessed.
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