Recently in Chongqing Customs District, 21 live snakes were seized from an inbound passenger’s luggage at Jiangbei Airport Customs House.

The seizure was due to out-of-box inspection after customs officers found abnormality in the luggage by using x-ray machine. The 21 snakes, ten to tens of centimeters long, packed in cloth or plastic bags, were identified to be corn snakes and king snakes respectively.

Live snake is listed in the “Catalogue of Animals, Plants and Their Products Prohibited from being Carried and Posted into China”, so the Airport Customs detained the snakes for legal disposal.