OSLO (AP) - A man has been arrested in Norway trying to smuggle two dozen snakes and geckos into the country by hiding them underhis clothes.

Customs agent Helge Breilid said Monday the 22-year-old Norwegian citizen was apprehended in the southern town of Kristiansand after getting off a ferry from Hirtshals, Denmark. He said the man had 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos under his clothes.

Breilid said the non-venomous snakes - the smallest species in the python family - were hidden in stockings duct-taped to the man's abdomen. The geckos were in boxes taped to his thighs.

Customs officials found the reptiles, which are not endangered, Sunday during a search following the discovery of a tarantula in one of the man's bags.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-10-26-09 1119EDT