CAIRO - Security at Cairo's international airport on Wednesday stopped an Egyptian man trying to smuggle eight live foxes and 50 chameleons in a huge suitcase out of the country.

Police stopped the 36-year-old traveler and asked him to open his suspiciously large suitcase, revealing the squirming mass of animals confined in small plastic cages.

Brig. Gen. Mustafa Salah of airport security said they confiscated the animals and will turn them over to the Cairo zoo.

According to Salah, the man said he planned to sell the animals in Thailand, use the money to buy cell phone parts and a computer that he would resell upon returning to Egypt.

Transporting live reptiles out of the country is illegal in Egypt.

Though he was released by police, the man elected to stay in Egypt saying he did not want to be separated from his animals.

Airport officials often confiscate live animals being smuggled out of Cairo, often for destinations in the Gulf.

In 2007, police stopped a man carrying a large numbers of reptiles, including baby crocodiles, chameleons and a cobra, he said were for use at a Saudi university.

In another case that year, a Saudi was discovered with 700 snakes in his carry on luggage. He told authorities they were popular as pets in his country.