A man in eastern China who lived alone has been jailed after his flat’s unusually high electricity usage exposed a secret reptile breeding operation. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, police raided the property in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, and discovered 309 pythons packed into plastic boxes stacked high across the rooms.
The investigation originally began when an elderly resident found a large, exotic snake at the foot of a local mountain. Because pythons are not native to the area and are a protected species under Chinese law, authorities immediately suspected an illegal breeder was operating nearby. A reptile expert gave detectives a critical breakthrough by explaining that pythons require constant warmth and high humidity to survive. As detailed by the South China Morning Post, this meant the breeder’s flat would be consuming vast amounts of electricity to keep the climate between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius.
Acting on this tip, police screened local electricity bills and quickly identified a resident surnamed Guo as their prime suspect. Guo was unmarried, unemployed, and had compressed all his personal furniture into a single bedroom. He used the rest of his flat, including the remaining two bedrooms and the living room, entirely for his massive snake collection.
Further investigations revealed that Guo and an accomplice had bought four pythons in 2014 and had since bred hundreds of them to sell online. Guo, who referred to himself as a creature creator, told officers he felt no fear towards the reptiles and loved engineering different colours.
A local court has now sentenced Guo and two accomplices to prison. In an article by the South China Morning Post, it was revealed that the wider police operation successfully seized a total of 436 pythons worth an estimated 30 million yuan, which is approximately 3.3 million pounds. Under Chinese criminal law, illegally breeding or selling these protected animals carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and the rescued snakes have now been safely moved to a local zoo.
