December 2018 will go down in the history of Moscow Vnukovo Airport as an extraordinary event - at the end of the year, customs officers took into custody a passenger who flew from exotic countries and tried to smuggle dozens of overseas insects and reptiles into the Russian Federation. It is noteworthy that the tourist positioned his unusual luggage as "gifts for people close to me."

“We found among the personal belongings of a Russian citizen who came home after traveling to exotic countries four plastic cans that contained live tarantula tarantulas, as well as containers with various kinds of snakes, several scorpions and more than thirty small living crocodiles that have not yet three months have passed, the customs officers of Vnukovo say. “The crocodile cubs curled in a cardboard box while the tourist proved that all these animals were nothing more than entertaining New Year's gifts for loved ones.”

The tourist did not even bother to take care of the accompanying documents for the animals and firmly believed that he would be allowed to go home with an unusual load without any problems. At the same time, law enforcement officers did not believe his assurances that spiders, scorpions and crocodiles were just “souvenirs”, and suspected that the man was acting exclusively for selfish purposes, hoping to resell the animals as profitably as possible.

“The detainee acquired a crocodile on the territory of the Yucatan Peninsula (Central America) during the excursion,” the police say. “There, all three dozen could cost him no more than $ 20, while in our country exotic lovers can sell one such animal at a price of at least seven thousand rubles (more than $ 100).” A weighty argument for further retention tourist in custody was the fact that he previously owned a mini zoo.