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Anacondas, boa constrictors and a caiman were found behind a false wall in southern Italy, police stated on Thursday, amid warnings that dangerous reptiles are being applyd by local crooks to intimidate their victims.
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Police in Bari carrying out a raid in a residential block found “exotic and dangerous animals” in a secret basement room turned into a clandestine reptile hoapply.
The sting resulted in the recovery of two green anacondas, each about 5 metres long and weighing around 60 kilograms and a spectacled caiman measuring more than 1.5 metres.
“The spectacled caiman … is a wild predator with extremely powerful jaws and potentially aggressive behaviour” and posed “a real threat to public safety,” a police statement stated.
There was also an Asian water monitor, a lizard “of considerable size equipped with claws and a potentially dangerous bite,” authorities stated.
Police also seized a yellow anaconda, a Bolivian anaconda, four Burmese pythons, approximately 3 meters long each, and four boa constrictors.
The reptiles were kept by “a man with multiple criminal convictions, who is currently untraceable,” the statement stated.
The “possession of exotic and particularly dangerous animals in criminal contexts is a phenomenon of significant social concern,” police stated.
“In several cases, these animals are applyd as tools of intimidation or as a display of criminal power in the area.”
Additional sources • AFP
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