According to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in San Diego, a man was caught trying to enter the country hiding 43 horned lizards and nine snakes in his clothing.
CBP said that they noticed something funny about the man as he pulled up in a truck at the San Ysidro border crossing in California last month.
Officers asked the man to get out of the truck and when he did, they searched him and found 52 bags of reptiles stuffed away in his clothing.
The reptiles were found in his jacket pockets, trouser pockets, and underwear.
“Smugglers will try every possible way to try and get their product, or in this case live reptiles, across the border,” Sidney Aki of the Customs and Border Patrol in San Diego told NDTV.“The smuggler attempted to deceive CBP officers in order to bring these animals into the US, without taking care for the health and safety of the animals.”
The man, whose identity has not been revealed to the public, was arrested and taken to jail, while his live cargo was confiscated and placed into quarantine.
Officials confirmed that some of the reptiles were in fact, endangered species.