New York City Man Fined, Sentenced to Probation for Smuggling Pythons
By Hamodia Staff
While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers were reviewing Calvin Bautista’s passport and conducting a border search as he tried to enter the United States on July 15, 2018, they discovered three young adult Burmese pythons, and invasive species which is not native the United States, in a snake bag in Bautista’s pants attached near his inner thigh.
Calvin Bautista, age 38, of Richmond Hill, New York, had been riding that crossed the U.S.-Canadian border at the Champlain Port of Entry in Clinton County. He had purchased the snakes, worth more than $2,500, at a reptile store in Canada, and did not have the required permits and documentation to import the snakes into the United States.
On June 28, 2023, he had pleaded guilty to the charges, which carried a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.
Bautista was sentenced on February 14, 2024, to one year of probation and fined $5,000.
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