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dpa, BerlinMcClatchy-Tribune Regional
News
Dec. 10, 2011--COLOGNE, Germany -- Three hotel guests who shared their Cologne hotel room with 100 snakes, nearly 70 tortoises and 20 brightly coloured frogs have been arrested by German police. Hotel staff phoned police to say that three guests from China were behaving suspiciously. Police checked their luggage and discovered the reptiles inside. A police spokesman said the animals had not yet been identified by species, so it remained unclear whether they were rare, poisonous or both. "(The) Cologne Zoo is looking after them," said a spokesman late Friday night. The three guests were freed on bail of well over 1,000 euros (1,300 dollars). "We suspect they are animal traffickers," the police spokesman said. The animals had probably been smuggled in from Asia in the luggage. ___ (c)2011 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html Distributed by MCT Information Services |
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