Customs officers find 200 live tarantulas in suitcase

Dutch customs officers were given a nasty surprise this week after hundreds of live tarantulas were found hidden in a suitcase on a flight from Peru, officials say.

"Customs at Schiphol airport found 200 live tarantulas and an assortment of other insects including bugs, crickets, grasshoppers and millipedes," customs officials said in a statement, issued by their umbrella Finance Ministry.

"The animals were collected by a German couple on a recent trip to Peru and were put in plastic containers and tubes hidden in their clothing and shoes," the statement said, adding that some of the tarantulas were of a type little known to science.

The arachnids have since been confiscated and handed to Dutch animal welfare authorities for further investigation, finance ministry spokeswoman Lindy van Galen told AFP, saying a criminal case had been opened against the German couple.

"Animals are regularly smuggled from other countries to the Netherlands, but never in this quantity," she said.