A traveler who was caught with nearly 5,000 leeches in his luggage has been fined $15,000 for attempting to smuggle his live cargo into Canada. The traveler, identified as Ippolit Bodounov from Niagara Falls, Ontario, had flown into Toronto Pearson International Airport from Russia in October 2018, carrying the 4,788 leeches in his carry-on bag. Officials later determined the leeches to be a species of regulated medicinal leeches, per a news release from the Environment and Climate Change Canada. Budounov is also banned from importing, exporting or owning any animals protected under the international Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) agreement for a period of one year. However, Andre Lupert, of the Wildlife Enforcement Directorate at Environment and Climate Change Canada, remained skeptical.

Source: Fox News May 28, 2019 13:07 UTC