‘Extraordinarily misguided’ man put pythons in pants, boarded bus to US, attorney says
A man who federal prosecutors said stashed three Burmese pythons inside his pants and rode a bus from Montréal, Canada, to the U.S. has avoided a prison sentence.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers learned the reptiles were in the man’s pants “near his inner thigh” on July 15, 2018, after the bus crossed the U.S.-Canada border at the Champlain Port of Entry in upstate New York, according to prosecutors.
The officers examined the man closely when they “misidentified” him as an “armed and dangerous” suspect, according to a sentencing memo filed by Timothy E. Austin, a federal public defender appointed to represent the man.
Instead of finding a potential weapon, they found the three young adult snakes in bags attached to the inside of his pants, according to prosecutors.
“His decision to try to smuggle snakes from Canada into the United States was extraordinarily misguided,” Austin wrote in the sentencing memo.
Now, the 38-year-old resident of Queens, New York, has been sentenced to one year of probation and fined $5,000 in connection with smuggling the snakes into the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York announced in a Feb. 14 news release.
Austin declined to comment when reached by McClatchy News on Feb. 14
Burmese pythons are considered “injurious to human beings” by the Secretary of the Interior and can grow up to 16 feet in length, according to the man’s plea agreement, McClatchy News previously reported. It’s illegal to bring these invasive pythons into the U.S. unless a person obtains a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
When the man did so, he did not have the proper permits or documents, prosecutors said.
More than 30 snakes, nearly 50 python eggs found at the man’s home
Before the man’s sentencing, he faced up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, prosecutors said.
“In the leadup to this federal prosecution and in addition to this prosecution ( the man) was subjected to extraordinary scrutiny in his home in New York City about perceived snake-related activity,” Austin wrote in the sentencing memo.
This was a “wake-up call” for him, Austin said.
More than three years after the man was found with the pythons in his pants, authorities found over 30 snakes and nearly 50 Burmese python eggs during a search of his home in Richmond Hill, a neighborhood in Queens, in March 2022, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing document.
The 26 Burmese pythons, four green anacondas, two yellow anacondas and the snake eggs were related to “apparent reptile breeding and trafficking activity,” prosecutors said.
Months later, the man was charged with smuggling goods — specifically the three pythons — into the U.S. and arraigned on Oct. 4, 2022, according to the attorney’s office, McClatchy News previously reported.
On June 28, 2023, the man pleaded guilty, prosecutors said.
He was accused of violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) treaty and other federal regulations involving importing wild animals into the country, according to his plea agreement.
Now, the man “fully understands that he cannot casually engage in snake-related activity without generating a high risk that, in the future, he could face severe punishment,” Austin said in the sentencing memo.
“He will do all he can to avoid that fate,” Austin wrote.
Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and are known to inhabit southern Florida.
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He put pythons in his pants and hopped on bus to US, feds say. Now he’s in trouble
