Roughly 1500 tarantulas found stuffed in boxes meant for chocolate cake

A Chilean rose hair tarantula at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. German customs officials uncovered tarantulas in a package. File Photo / Richard Perry, the New York Times

Customs officials smelled that something was amiss even before they unpacked roughly 1500 tarantulas that had been hidden in boxes that should have been filled with about 7kg of chocolate-flavoured cake.

The tarantulas - large and hairy arachnids - were in a packet addressed to be shipped from Vietnam to North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany.

The venomous spiders were crammed into small plastic containers that were then filled into the bright-red cake boxes.

A “noticeable smell” - inconsistent with the alleged contents - emanated from one of the packages when it was opened, Cologne Bonn Airport officials said in a news release yesterday.

Maja Ley, a spokesperson for the Cologne Main Customs Office, said that the majority of the smuggled tarantulas were alive when discovered. The survivors were placed in professional care.

“The most shocking thing is the fact that people are seeking profit at the expense of animal welfare,” Ley told the Washington Post in an email.

“It’s very unfortunate that so many animals didn’t survive.”

Ley did not have a tally of how many of the smuggled tarantulas survived.

The person responsible for the package, which was discovered about three weeks ago, is a now a suspect in an investigation, Ley said.

The fact that some of the arachnids died violates Germany’s animal welfare regulations, said the news release. Ley could not confirm the exact charges against the suspect.

Criminal proceedings are also underway against the parcel recipient in Sauerland.

Animals of any kind must be declared to customs, and import duties have to be paid for packages sent from a non-European Union member state.

Ley did not have a specific value for the roughly 1500 tarantulas but told the Washington Post that in Germany adult tarantulas are traded online for hundreds of dollars.

Adult tarantulas average 13cm-long and when spread out, their leg span is up to 28cm, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Some species of tarantulas have been impacted by habitat destruction or the pet trade.

In November, a 28-year-old South Korean man was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle hundreds of tarantulas, centipedes and bullet ants out of Peru, the Washington Post previously reported.

The man had used adhesive tape and belts to hold dozens of plastic bags and containers filled with the crawlies around his stomach when security officials at Peru’s Jorge Chavez International Airport noticed his swollen stomach and inspected him closely.

It’s not often that customs officials at the Cologne Bonn Airport foil an attempt of smuggling arachnids or animals, Ley said, adding that more common cases include smuggled jewellery, cellphone cases or items made of snake or crocodile leather.

“My colleagues at the airport are regularly surprised by the contents of prohibited packages from all over the world, but the discovery of around 1500 small plastic containers containing young tarantulas in this package left even the most experienced among them speechless,” said Jens Ahland, another spokesperson for the Cologne Main Customs Office.

It’s “an extraordinary seizure for German Customs”, he added.