A New York City man was sentenced on Wednesday to one year of probation and fined $5,000 for smuggling Burmese pythons into the U.S. from Canada in 2018.
Calvin Bautista, 38, of Richmond Hill, New York, was sentenced in the Northern District of New York after previously admitting to smuggling three Burmese pythons into the U.S. during a bus ride from Montreal to the Big Apple on July 15, 2018, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Carla B. Freedman.
The bus he was on passed through the Champlain Port of Entry in Clinton County, New York.
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The pythons were discovered when Customs and Border Protection officers were reviewing Bautista's passport and conducting a border search, according to Freedman. The young adult snakes were inside snake bags attached to his pants near his inner thigh.
Burmese pythons are not native to North America and are considered an invasive species, and Bautista did not have the permits and documentation required to bring them into the country.
According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Bautista purchased the snakes at a reptile store in Canada. They were worth more than $2,500.
The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world and is considered a vulnerable species in Asia – its native continent.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and CBP and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping.
Bautista’s attorney had no comment when contacted by The AP.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
