Daniel Isaac Velasco Baltazar is 23 years old and had a suitcase that gave him away.
When he landed at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on August 8, he was carrying more than clothes: 200 live lizards, placed one by one inside 22 pairs of socks. Among them were nine specimens of Abronia graminea, the Mexican alligator lizard, a species that lives only in Mexico’s forests and that he bought there for just 3 to 4 dollars each.
In Japan, that same animal is resold for as much as 627 dollars. The price difference explains why someone would risk everything for a shipment of reptiles hidden in underwear. An anonymous tip alerted authorities just before a reptile sales meeting, and that was where the plan ended. He now faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 62,700 dollars for violating Japanese customs law.