Another piece of evidence that we’re all actually living in a burning tire fire has surfaced: Nintendo Famicom game cartridges intercepted at the U.S.-Mexico border contained a treasure trove of smuggled spiders.

First question: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

There is a reason, but let’s look at the facts of the case first. Shudder.

During what sounds like a normal customs check at Guadalajara International Airport on Wednesday, Mexican authorities intercepted a package bound for Hanover, Maryland. Inside were 10 seemingly bootlegged Famicom cartridges containing 73 plastic tubes and 73 terrifying nightmare creatures.

Mexican newspaper La Crónica de Hoy (h/t NeoGAF) shared some video of the unpleasant discovery on Twitter. The camera mercifully slips out of focus as someone holds one of the plastic Hell Tubes up for a closer look.

Obviously, you want to know why somebody would do this terrible thing.

Spider smuggling is actually more common than you might think. Tarantulas are popular in the exotic pet world, though protections imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) — as well as local laws that vary by country — can make moving them around a costly exercise.

That’s where smugglers come in. It’s a cheap — if risky — alternative to obtaining permits. Mexico is a particularly popular source for the black market tarantula trade because of the multiple species that dwell there and the relative ease of moving the spiders across the U.S.-Mexico border.

There’s no word on what will happen to the 73 confiscated tarantulas and their 584 legs. Hopefully they’ll be returned promptly to the pits of Hell from which they spawned.

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