Nine small boa constrictors were found last week by postal employees in Caracas, inside a package destined for the United States that raised suspicions because the return address was incomplete, reported Miguel Arévalo of the Postal Institute. “This year we have found packages with beetles and spiders” addressed to destinations in the United States and Britain, he said.

Illegally taken from Venezuela are “more than 70 species of wildlife, to be marketed in countries of the industrialized North as pets. In highest demand among snakes are anacondas, coral and rattlers, and among birds are toucans, parrots and guacamayas,” Israel Cañizales, director of El Pinar Zoo in Caracas, told Tierramérica.

Conservationists criticize the Environment Ministry because the fine for this type of smuggling can be as low as four dollars