Saturday, December 4, 2010

Current Events QTR 2 Week 7: Man accused of smuggling tarantulas into U.S.

         A German tarantula dealer named Sven Koppler, has been illegally sending tarantulas to the U.S. through U.S. mail. More than 500 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas have been sent to the U.S. Sven wrapped some of them in colored plastic straws. He had received about $300,000 for them. He flew into Los Angeles and was arrested on Thursday. He has to stay in jail until December 8th for a bond hearing. He will have another hearing on December 17th and December 20th. If Sven is convicted, he will have to face up to twenty years in federal prison and fined $250,000.


          I liked this article because it was very unusual. It is very weird to hear about something like this because they are becoming more strict about this kind of stuff. It's interesting to hear about tarantulas getting mailed to the U.S. It's also very interesting to hear about somebody getting busted for sending them. And this is my opinion on this article. 




This is a picture of a tarantula that went along with the article.



I got this article from an online resource. I got it from CNN News. Here is a link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/03/california.spider.importing/index.html?npt=NP1

1 comment:

  1. When I worked at Busch Gardens we received some Flying Foxes that someone tried to smuggle into the country on an airplane. The rare pet trade, while illegal, does exist. I can't imagine paying that much for an arachnid that was sent through the mail though.

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