Anacondas, boa constrictors and a caiman were found behind a false wall in southern Italy, police said on Thursday, amid warnings that dangerous reptiles are being used by local crooks to intimidate their victims.
Police in Bari carrying out a raid in a residential block found "exotic and dangerous animals" in a secret basement room turned into a clandestine reptile house.
The sting resulted in the recovery of two green anacondas, each about 5 metres long and weighing around 60 kilograms and a spectacled caiman measuring more than 1.5 metres.
"The spectacled caiman ... is a wild predator with extremely powerful jaws and potentially aggressive behaviour" and posed "a real threat to public safety," a police statement said.
There was also an Asian water monitor, a lizard "of considerable size equipped with claws and a potentially dangerous bite," authorities said.
Police also seized a yellow anaconda, a Bolivian anaconda, four Burmese pythons, approximately 3 meters long each, and four boa constrictors.
The reptiles were kept by "a man with multiple criminal convictions, who is currently untraceable," the statement said.
The "possession of exotic and particularly dangerous animals in criminal contexts is a phenomenon of significant social concern," police said.
"In several cases, these animals are used as tools of intimidation or as a display of criminal power in the area."
