KUNMING - Police in Southwest China's Yunnan province have captured 4,815 snakes in a recent raid against smugglers, local authorities said on Monday.

Forest police in Ruili city captured 4,815 snakes loaded in boxes in a vehicle from Myanmar at around 4 am on Feb 22. They included 2,264 oriental ratsnakes, 230 cobras and 2,321 vipers, with the animals weighing a total of 3.8 tons, according to the Ruili municipal public security bureau.

They also caught one suspect.

The Ruili police got word on January 21 that smugglers were expected to transport overseas wild animals into China. They intercepted the vehicle at a section of the Nongdao-to-Ruili highway after surveillance and deployment.

Eating snake is popular in South China and raising snakes is a profitable business. But transporting and selling endangered snakes is banned by Chinese law.

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