Traffickers hide cocaine under rare python

(Reuters) - Italian police seized a rare albino python in Rome Wednesday in a raid on a group of drug traffickers who used the snake to guard coc aine and intimidate customers who owed them money.

Holy smokes..a 10 foot long Python..(whistles)

I am so scared of snakes i would have run screaming like a little girl..

The three-meter (10-foot) long reptile attacked police when they burst into the dealers' apartment where they were preparing the coc aine for distribution. The specialist forest police had to be called in to capture the python.

"When we went in, we found the animal right behind the door waiting for us, just like a proper guard dog," said Lieutenant Luca Gelormino.

"We were surprised to find 200 grams of very pure coc aine under the snake that it was jealously guarding. From our investigation we can say it had been trained to watch over the drugs."

The animal had been starved for seven days to make it extremely aggressive, but it calmed down after it was given a generous helping of chicken.

source



[edit on 11-8-2010 by baddmove]

What? :S It was "starved" for 7 days? I have a ball python that eats every 7 or so days. Heck, they can go more then a month without eating. I do not not see how it could of been starved for 7 days, unless this type of python needs to eat breakfast, brunch, dinner, and a bed time snack.

Odd, I worked for a company that supplies exotic pets in the southeastern US a few years back and when I started one of the drivers had just gotten busted for the same thing, but he was using the inside of a long-haul fish transport vehicle.

no snake that big is gonna be starved after 7 days. i have a ball python that only 4 ft long and it got loose in the house. i found it 4 months later stuck in a box in my closet. she was alive and well and had even shed once while trapped.

The Italian police know nothing about snakes. They could tell it was trained to guard drugs? Come on, like you could train a snake to do anything.

Also, albino Burmese pythons are not rare at all in the reptile trade. Even normal pet stores have them. (At least where I live.) I do not consider €250 a great deal of money for a snake and I think I can get one for less. There are far more costly snakes.

And as for starving it, others have already pointed out that's wrong too. A well-fed, 10-foot Burmese python can easily go without food for six months or a year, depending on the meal.

I love snakes and find it disturbing that they are so often misused in the drug trade. However, considering how they normally get used this one is relatively lucky.

InterMundia

edit: spelling


[edit on 12-8-2010 by InterMundia]