Man charged in effort to sell deadly reptiles
A federal grand jury last week indicted a 21-year-old man for attempting to sell deadly, illegal reptiles from his Las Vegas home via the Internet, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Cody Brett Bartolini was arrested Friday and charged with three felony counts of attempted unlawful sale of wildlife, including seven green mambas, two forest cobras, one black-necked spitting cobra, two Great Basin rattlesnakes, a Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake and a southwestern speckled rattlesnake, prosecutors said.
Authorities stated that an Ohio game warden received information that Bartolini was offering to sell and trade venomous reptiles online.
Agents later found that Bartolini had been offering venomous snakes for sale or trade from his residence in Las Vegas since September 2004, according to federal prosecutors.
On March 9, U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents served a search warrant at Bartolini's Las Vegas home and seized 48 snakes of various species, a caiman, Gila monster and an alligator snapping turtle, prosecutors said.
Nevada law prohibits people from possessing certain indigenous and nonindigenous snakes without proper licensing and permits.
It is also a federal violation to sell the reptiles between states if the wildlife is possessed illegally.
Bartolini appeared in federal court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on his own recognizance.
Bartolini faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count.
The venom of the snakes seized is highly toxic and can be lethal to humans and animals, prosecutors said.
Green mambas and cobras, for example, have an extremely potent neurotoxic venom that attacks the nervous system and can shut down the lungs and heart of a bite victim. Mambas have been reported to bring down giraffes and lions. Spitting cobras can incapacitate larger would-be predators, such as humans, by spraying venom into their eyes.
The venom of Mojave rattlesnakes is both neurotoxic and hemotoxic. Hemotoxins are poisons that destroy red blood cells, disrupt blood clotting, and cause organ degeneration and generalized tissue damage.
