Customs officials at Cologne Bonn Airport in western Germany were surprised to find hundreds of tarantulas inside a package sent from Vietnam, which, according to the shipment declaration, was supposed to contain cakes and sweets.

The customs spokesperson at the airport, Jens Ahland, said the package raised suspicion due to an unusual smell. When opened, the inspectors were confronted with a frightening sight: about 1,500 young tarantula spiders, alive and active, were enclosed in dozens of small plastic containers originally intended for packaging cakes.

"My colleagues at the airport are regularly surprised by the contents of prohibited packages from all over the world, but the fact that they found around 1,500 small plastic containers containing young tarantulas in this package left even the most experienced among them speechless," Ahland stated.

"This is an exceptional seizure, but it saddens us to see what some people do to animals purely for profit - even at the cost of severely harming animals."

Some of the spiders did not survive the transportation journey, and those that remained alive were transferred to the care of an exotic animal specialist in an attempt to rehabilitate them. German authorities have launched an investigation against the recipient, a resident of Sauerland, on suspicion of illegally importing protected animals.