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Workers at a parcel depot in La Carolina, Jaén, got the shock of their lives when a metre and a half long python slithered out of a damaged cardboard box sitting among the regular deliveries. What followed was a full Guardia Civil investigation into wildlife smuggling, with two people now under suspicion.

 

Agents from the Nature Protection Service, known as SEPRONA, were called in after depot staff spotted the snake and raised the alarm. When officers arrived, they found the box torn open and two plastic containers inside, one holding a second, smaller snake, and the other with a cracked lid that investigators believe is exactly how the python managed to break free in the first place.

 

Both animals were seized and taken to the Invasive Exotic Species Interpretation Centre in Alcalá la Real, where they were identified as a ball python and a California kingsnake. They've since been placed in quarantine while the case makes its way through the courts.

 

It turns out both species are far from ordinary pets. The ball python is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and both snakes appear on Spain's Catalogue of Invasive Exotic Species, meaning owning, transporting or selling them is banned outright.

 

Investigators also found the animals had no documentation proving where they'd come from or that they'd been sourced legally. Worse still, the conditions they were being transported in were, according to the Guardia Civil, unsuitable enough to put the animals' health and even their survival at risk.

 

Two people aged 25 and 28 are now being investigated on suspicion of wildlife crime and animal abuse. The transport company involved has said it had no idea live animals were hidden inside the parcel, explaining that the sender never declared what was actually being shipped.

 

 

Image: Guardia Civil