SPIDER SMUGGLER FACES 20 YEARS IN JAIL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Spider smuggler faces 20 years in jail after he's caught POSTING tarantulas to the U.S.

By Daily Mail Reporter
19th January 2011


A man who smuggled hundreds of tarantulas into the United States by mail is facing up to 20 years in prison.
Sven Koppler, from Wachtberg, Germany, pleaded guilty at the weekend to one charge of smuggling goods into the U.S., according to court documents filed yesterday.
He was arrested on December 2 after arriving in Los Angeles to meet an associate, following a nine-month investigation dubbed Operation Spiderman, federal prosecutors said.



Koppler, 37, who will be sentenced on April 11, mailed more than 240 live tarantulas from Germany to Los Angeles last year.
The probe began last March when customs officers found 300 live tarantulas during a routine search of a package.
US fish and wildlife agents intercepted a second package containing nearly 250 live tarantulas wrapped in coloured plastic straws, as well as 22 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas.
Agents then posed as customers and ordered dozens more spiders, including the protected Mexican species.
'Sending light and small packages containing tarantulas is the best way to avoid customs detection around the world,' Koppler allegedly claimed in email exchanges with an undercover US agent.
A number of the packages included spiders whose import was in breach of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), legal documents said.
Authorities say Koppler made $300,000 (£190,000) by selling spiders to people in dozens of countries.


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