![Ap22035500134934](https://img.cannabisequipmentnews.com/files/base/indm/multi/image/2022/02/AP22035500134934.61fd4b9c8d5f6.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&rect=0%2C761%2C1512%2C850&w=400)
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian police searching for drugs in a Brussels apartment have discovered 37 cannabis plants — as well as a collection of dozens of poisonous spiders, scorpions and desert-dwelling lizards.
Prosecutors said Friday that two men arrested in the apartment during the raid are being investigated for animal welfare violations, in addition to facing drug-related charges.
Police made the unexpected discovery Wednesday after they were told a strong cannabis smell was coming from a building in a northeast neighborhood of Belgium's capital.
Officers searched an apartment where a father and his adult son were arrested. In addition to the cannabis plants and 228 grams of marijuana they seized, police found 52 tarantulas, a python, three scorpions, four turtles, two lizards in the Pogona family — also known as bearded dragons — and 16 beetles.