A Russian man drove across the ocean in the 5000 hand luggage of live leeches. A PHOTO

Passenger Ippolit Bodunov, who flew from Russia to Canada, brought with him almost 5000 live medical leeches - the man managed to smuggle them into the cabin of the plane and safely reached their destination with them, where the leeches were discovered by service dogs at the airport.

Photo: Environment and Climate Change Canada

Animals sniffed leeches already at the Toronto International Airport during the inspection. In Bodunov’s carry-on bag, a product bag was found, and in her 10 small moist bags made of cloth, in which 4788 contained live leeches, writes CBC.

According to the Canadian Ministry of the Environment (ECCC), the service is for the first time encountered in practice with such a large illegal import of leeches.

Surprisingly, all the worms survived the transatlantic flight. Bodunov was fined 15 000 US dollars.

The ministry sent leeches to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where Sebastian Quist, a curator for invertebrate zoology, identified them as Hirudo verbana, a medical leech that is in danger of extinction.

Photo: Environment and Climate Change Canada

About 240 individuals were sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where a DNA analysis of the contents of the stomach revealed that they were caught in the wild.

On the subject: Passenger tips: how to bring animals and what to do when you lose baggage

According to Quist, people have collected this breed for medical purposes since the Middle Ages. Practitioners of the “new age medicine” use them for different purposes: from reducing arthritis pain to preventing baldness, although there is no scientific evidence that this works.

He said the only proven medical use of leeches is to stimulate blood flow in reattached fingers and toes. In some cases, they also prevent strokes. Medicinal leeches sell for $8 to $20 each, he said.

Photo: Environment and Climate Change Canada

24 May Bodunov pleaded guilty to violating the Law on the Protection of Wild Animals and Plants and on the Regulation of International Trade. He was fined and banned for the year the import, export and maintenance of any animals regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Illegal trade in wildlife raises about 20 billions of dollars a year.

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