Guess How Much You Can Be Fined for Smuggling 5,000 Leeches
Jennifer Billock June 03, 2019
A Canadian man is facing a hefty fine after trying to smuggle some strange cargo into Canada: almost 5,000 live leeches that he carried in his luggage, wrapped in wet cloths, inside a shopping bag. The man said he planned to use the leeches for his garden, but officials are skeptical about his reasons.
Ippolit Bodounov, a Canadian man flying back into Canada in October 2018, from Russia, is now facing a hefty fine of $15,000 for attempting to smuggle in some strange cargo. Bodounov was carrying 4,788 live leeches in his carry-on. The leeches were wrapped in wet clothes and hidden in a plastic bag, but a dog at the airport in Toronto sniffed them out.
The species Bodounov was attempting to smuggle in, Hirudo verbena, are actually regulated medicinal leeches. They were apparently harvested in the wild. According to Bodounov, he was planning on using them in his garden, saying that wastewater left behind by the leeches would be good for his flowers.
But, officials say, he had almost 5,000 of them—and that’s a bit much for simple gardening practices.
“This sort of leech quantity would suggest it was for commercialization,” Andre Lupert, of the Wildlife Enforcement Directorate at Environment and Climate Change Canada, told National Geographic, reported by Fox News.
Lupert suggests Bodounov was planning to sell the leeches for naturopathic medicinal purposes; this species is known for stimulating blood flow.
In addition to the fine, Bodounov “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,” Fox News said.
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