Snakes found in luggage at Ga. airport

ATLANTA — Airport security officers are used to finding strange critters while screening luggage, they just don't encounter the kind that have venom too often.

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A man flying into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from South Korea recently packed 30 dead snakes in jars and bottles inside boxes he checked as luggage, said Jon Allen, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Even though the creatures were lifeless, screeners took extra precautions because U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers warned that some of the snakes could still contain venom, Allen said.

A dead bird and pieces of several other birds also were in the passenger's boxes aboard the Korean Air flight on Aug. 15, officials said.

The passenger, whose name has not been released, faces possible fines. Federal wildlife officials are investigating.

Allen said he has no idea what the passenger intended to do with the creatures