TSA finds python inside checked bag at Miami airport

MIAMI — A man with a python hidden inside an external hard drive was stopped from boarding a Florida plane headed to Barbados.

The Miami Herald reports that officers screening luggage at the Miami International Airport Sunday found an “organic mass” inside a checked bag. Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Sari Koshetz says a bomb expert then examined the bag and discovered the live snake in the hard drive.

She says the snake was “obviously not an imminent terrorist threat,” but its interception prevented a possible wildlife threat. The passenger was fined, and the snake was taken into custody by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. His name was not released. Neither man nor snake made the flight.