German customs officials seize 1,500 tarantulas smuggled in international spongecake shipment
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German customs authorities recently made a skin-crawling discovery when they found about 1,500 young tarantulas concealed in a shipment of spongecake boxes.

The package, which had arrived at Germany’s Cologne Bonn Airport three weeks ago from Vietnam, weighed more than 15 pounds and had a noticeable smell that tipped off officials, according to a news release from the Cologne customs office.

“My colleagues at the airport are regularly surprised by the contents of prohibited packages from all over the world, but the fact that they found around 1,500 small plastic containers containing young tarantulas in this package left even the most experienced among them speechless,” Jens Ahland, spokesperson for the Cologne customs office, said in a statement. 

“Animals of any kind must be declared to customs and import duties paid for parcels from a non-EU member state,” the release noted.

German customs officers recently made a skin-crawling discovery when they found around 1,500 young tarantulas concealed in a shipment of spongecakes.

German customs officers recently made a skin-crawling discovery when they found around 1,500 young tarantulas concealed in a shipment of spongecake. (Cologne customs)

Last year, a passenger was busted at Miami International Airport for trying to get onto an airplane with a bag of snakes in the passenger’s pants. The TSA shared images of the reptiles on X at the time, writing that officers in Florida “detected this bag of snakes hidden in a passenger’s pants at a checkpoint.”

Jens Ahland did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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