Driver with snakes arrested on I-75

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Here’s a traffic stop on I-75 that gave Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputies pause: The driver warned them that he had snakes in the car. Lots of them.

The incident happened Monday when deputies pulled over a vehicle driven by Nicholas Mesa of Indiana.

“Mr. Mesa had 10 snakes and three different lizard species in the vehicle,” Melissa Cummings, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told Channel 2 Action News.

Mesa allegedly refused to let deputies search his car. When he told them why, the deputies contacted Georgia DNR, which sent an investigator to the scene.

“The snakes were non-venomous,” Cummings said. “Species included corn, coachwhip, pine, king and Southern hognose snakes – all native to Georgia – plus a rosy boa, a non-native snake. Mr. Mesa said he caught the snakes in Florida and was taking them to Indiana.”

Authorities charged Mesa with one count of illegal possession of non-game wildlife without a permit, a misdemeanor. Mesa was booked into Cherokee County Jail and released Wednesday on a $5,000 bond.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also is investigating.