FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After a two-year investigation into Florida’s black market trade of dangerous, venomous snakes, eight men are facing charges for their alleged participation in the deals.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Division of Law Enforcement announced the charges Friday, the first wave of arrests under what has been dubbed “Operation Viper.”
Undercover FWC officers purchased or sold almost 200 snakes of 24 different species, FWC said in a statement, including spitting and forest cobras, saw-scaled, rhinoceros, African bush, eyelash, puff adder and Gaboon vipers. Some are “among the most dangerous in the world,” the statement said.
