MIAMI -- When Barbados pet store owner Rodney Carrington tried to enter the United States, he told customs officers at Miami International Airport he had nothing to declare.

But his pants said otherwise, officials said.

Carrington was arrested Friday after officers said they found 55 red-footed tortoises stuffed in his pants.

They became suspicious, federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald said, after they noticed that Carrington's pants were wriggling and had "some ominous bulges...in unusual places."

A search found that Carrington was wearing two pairs of pants and that he had stuffed the 4-inch-long endangered reptiles between the inner pair and outer pair.

Carrington then confessed, officials said, saying he had planned to try to sell the tortoises. They fetch about $5 in Barbados, but go for $75 in the United States.

He was charged with smuggling and violating a treaty prohibiting the transportation of endangered species.

The tortoises were given to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.