US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Officers checking Mexico-bound vehicles on an International Bridge in Mission, Texas, got quite a surprise on October 22, 2025, when they decided to take a closer look at a silver Toyota truck.
Normally, if these officers find any Mexico-bound contraband, it’s cartel cash, guns, and ammo - but not this time!
This driver, it turns out, was attempting to sneak a slithery stash into Reynosa, Mexico. Hidden throughout the truck were sacks and containers filled with 166 reptiles (mostly snakes) and arthropods (spiders and centipedes).
US Fish and Wildlife Service Officers soon arrived to help CBP sort out precisely what they had found, and, once an inventory of the animals was completed, the list resembled the contents of a small zoo:
(24) Royal Pythons
(15) Green Anoles
(11) Spotted Salamanders
(10) Sick Red Eye Tree Frogs
(10) Albino Milk Snakes
(10) Orange Milk Snakes
(10) Mexican Black King Snakes
(4) Monarch Ball Pythons
(4) Tarantulas
(3) Pacman Frogs (yellow)
(3) Coffee Pacman Frogs
(3) Chilean Rose Tarantulas
(3) Irian Jaya Blue Tongued Skinks
(3) Bearded Dragons
(3) Savannah Monitors
(3) Rankin Dragons
(3) Albino Aberrant Calif. King Snakes
(3) Albino Banded Calif. King Snakes
(3) Albino Striped Calif. King Snakes
(3) Albino/Amelanistic Corn Snakes
(3) Black Corn Snakes
(2) Ball Pythons
(2) Honduran Milk Snakes
(2) Ornate Monitor Lizards
(2) Chinese Caved Geckos
(2) Veiled Chameleons
(2) Centipedes
(2) Green Tree Pythons
(2) High White Calif. King Snakes
(1) Timor Python
(1) Carpet Python
(1) Garter Snake
(1) Banana Blade Clown
(1) Banana Spotnose
(1) Pinstripe Ball Python
(1) Fire Skink
(1) Indian Star Tortoise
(1) Ghost Aztec Jungle Boa
(1) Female Juvenile Axanthic Banana Ball Python
(1) Female Juvenile Axanthic Banana Lesser Ball Python
(1) Juvenile Axanthic Lesser Ball Python
(1) Juveline Axanthic Ball Python
(1) Juvenile Ghost Piebald Ball Python
(1) Juvenile Piebald Ball Python
(1) Male Juvenile Axanthic Banana Enchi Ball Python
Most of the rustled reptiles were Pythons like this one, which are often purchased as pets. (Photo by Pexels/Pixabay) As you’ve probably noticed, most of the rescued reptiles were pythons, which were likely bound for the black market pet trade, south of the border. It’s illegal (in both the US and Mexico) to move wild animals across the border without declaring them and having the proper permits from both governments.
US Homeland Security Investigations arrested the smuggler and is looking into this large-scale wildlife smuggling scheme, the size of which suggests likely ties to one of the cartels (just another illegal “business” they profit from).
A Border Patrol K9 sniffed out these five monkeys inside a vehicle passing through the Sarita, Texas, checkpoint in January 2025. (Photos by US Border Patrol) Federal agents along the Texas-Mexico border are used to catching wildlife smugglers (whose captive contraband is most often monkeys and parrots, not reptiles).
Mexican parrots seized by US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Officers while being smuggled into the US (Defenders of Wildlife photo) The illegal wildlife trade is a massive global criminal enterprise valued between $10 billion and $23 billion annually, and it affects over 4,000 species. It is considered the fourth-largest illegal trade after narcotics, human trafficking, and counterfeit products, and it involves organized crime (such as Mexico’s cartels).
Most of the known illegal wildlife smuggling routes from Mexico lead to Texas, so US authorities are constantly on the watch for people trying to sneak animals across the border there.
Are you surprised how big the illegal wildlife smuggling “business” is along the US Border with Mexico?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
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Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Jack Beavers - US Border News 
