A New York City man who shocked border patrol officers with live reptilians in his pants, and admitted to making an attempt to smuggle the three Burmese pythons in his trousers through a U.S.-Canadian border crossing, has received a sentence this past Wednesday for a year of probation and a fine of $5,000, according to federal prosecutors.
On July 15th, 2018, Calvin Bautista, 38, crossed into Northern New York with the hidden snakes on a bus that went from Montreal to New York City.
He kept the young adult pythons hidden underneath the inner thigh of his pants in snake bags tied to the drawstring of the trousers.
Bautista, a Queens resident, purchased the snakes at a reptile store in Canada, with each one costing more than $2,500, as cited by court documents.
These reptilians were discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, according to court records and a release from the office of U.S. Attorney Carla B. Freedman.
Bautista’s attorney has made no comment on the case, and it is not clear why it took so long to hand down a sentence.
The Burmese python- one of the world’s largest snakes- is considered to be a vulnerable species in its native continent of Asia, and is an invasive one in Florida, where it threatens the native animals of the state.
Importation of these creatures is regulated by an international treaty and by U.S. federal regulations naming them as “injurious to human beings.”
