German arrested for smuggling tarantulas
A German citizen was arrested on Thursday, after the US authorities caught him smuggling hundreds of tarantulas and other spider species into the country during a sting operation called ”Operation Spiderman”. The whole operation began this March, after over 300 live tarantulas were found by customs officers during a routine search of a package, and it lasted for more than nine months. Eventually Sven Koppler, aged 37, was arrested on his arrival in Los Angelels, where he was to meet his associate.
After discovering the first package containing live tarantulas, US Fish and Wildlife agents intercepted a second one. This time the package had almost 250 live tarantulas wrapped in colored plastic and over 20 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas, a species also known as Brachypelma smithi that is protected under an international treaty. And, in order to catch the one smuggling the animals in the country, law enforcement officials decided to order more spiders from Koppler. And the man sent them a total of five packages containing other 70 specimens of tarantulas and other spiders. The investigators believe that Koppler, living in Wachtberg in western Germany, won as much as $300,000 from selling tarantulas to spider fans in several countries. Including species whose import was forbidden by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The German was scheduled to appear before a court on Friday, facing up to 20 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for one count of illegally importing wildlife into the United States. He explained that he used to send light and small packages containing tarantulas, as this was the best way to avoid unwanted customs control around the world. And he even bragged that, if he wanted to, he could smuggle tarantulas in his luggage when comming to Los Angeles without being caught 90% of the cases, but he chose not to take any unnecesarry risk.
