Shanghai customs officials found 121 endangered pythons in a suitcase that arrived on a flight from Hong Kong last week, xinmin.cn reported.

The Chinese passenger who brought the snakes had individually wrapped each of them in a black silk stocking before packing them int0 21 plastic boxes inside his suitcase. During the X-ray scan, he said the snakes were rubber toys.

When customs officials discovered his ruse, the passenger claimed that the pythons weren't an endangered species, and he just planned to raise them as pets.

Customs officials later identified the snakes as endangered ball pythons.