Airport Security Finds Strangest Thing Stuffed Inside Passenger's Hard Drive

"This organic mass was not explosive."

When "organic matter" was detected inside a piece of luggage in the baggage screening room at Miami International Airport (MIA) on Sunday, TSA agents called in the bomb squad. 

They carefully pulled out an external hard drive that had caused alarm — and found something truly bizarre inside of it. 

Travelers at Miami International Airport
Travelers at Miami International Airport | Shutterstock

"TSA Officers at MIA intercepted this ball or royal python artfully concealed inside a hard drive," a TSA spokesperson wrote on Twitter. "This organic mass was not explosive, but it shows you can’t hide any threat from us."

It is unclear exactly why the traveler had put the python in a bag and stuffed him into the hard drive, but the sad truth is that discovering wild animals and parts of wild animals in luggage isn't so uncommon; trafficking in exotic pets and illegal wildlife products like rhino horn, ivory and pangolin scales is one of the most complex black market networks in the world. 

The flight, which was bound for Barbados, left without two individuals that day — the python, who was confiscated by the authorities, and the person who put him there, who was fined.

The discovery of the snake, who nearly got on the plane, inspired many easy references to a particular Hollywood blockbuster starring Samuel L. Jackson — so easy, in fact, that we will show some restraint.