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A security guard committed suicide by snake by goading his own deadly serpents into delivering fatal bites after he was arrested by police in South Africa.
Marius Joubert, 28, died in agony after his illegally-smuggled Indochinese Spitting Cobra and a second snake pumped lethal venom into his hand and wrist after he stuck his hand in their tanks.
The snake dealer was fully aware that - as his cobra had been smuggled into South Africa from Thailand 5,500 miles away - that there was no anti-venom to save his life.
The armed security officer realised that police were about to uncover his illegal racket of importing illegal animals that could see him serve 25 years behind bars.
So rather than face a long spell in a hell-hole jail he handed himself a death sentence, even while police were present in his home.
Marius Joubert, 28, died in agony after his Indochinese Spitting Cobra and a second snake pumped lethal venom into his hand and wrist after he stuck his hand in their tanks
This is the dealy Indochinese Spitting Cobra that Marius Joubert used to commit suicide by snake putting its hand into its tank to receive a lethal bite in South Africa
The married guard who was seen by his bosses as an 'exemplary employee' had been held for several days after being arrested for burglary and theft in his hometown.
Police in Hennenman, 100 miles north of Bloemfontein, had kept him in for questioning and were about to take him back to his house to search it for any proceeds of crime.
He realised that they would find his huge menagerie at the home where he lived with his wife Chimonet, 26, and that serious charges under the Wildlife Act would follow.
Officers took him in a marked car to the terraced corner house unaware that a spare room, a bedroom, the lounge and entrance hall were packed with over 60 snakes.
They were shocked to also find a crocodile, iguanas, monitors, tarantulas, hedgehogs and ferrets all kept warm by solar power, special heating pads and extractor fans.
It did not seem unusual to the officers when they took his cuffs so he could reveal stolen property when he asked if he could feed the creatures who he said would be starving.
What they did not expect was him to then use his own snakes to commit suicide.
A source close to the investigation said: 'Joubert knew that sooner or later after his arrest the police would visit his home and that they would find all these illegally kept creatures.
'And he knew the offences he would then be charged with would be much more serious and that many of the snakes and animals he had could put him behind bars for 25 years.
Pictured: A file photo of a Indochinese Spitting Cobra, the same species that bit Marius Joubert after he stuck his hand into a tank on purpose
A South African puff adder rescued from Marius Joubert's illegal collection of snakes
A juvenile two foot Nile crocodile found in the home of Marius Joubert
'He asked if he could feed his snakes and once the cuffs were off he stuck his hands in two cages and was bitten by two snakes in the wrist area and then was restrained,
'We know one of the snakes that bit him was an Indochinese Spitting Cobra which would have put a s**t load of venom in him but we don't know what the other snake was,' the source added.
'An ambulance was called but Joubert refused treatment and said he would be fine and was taken back to the police station and warned of further animal related charges.
'In the meantime the paperwork for burglary and theft was completed and he was about to be released on a warning until his court date then he started to appear very unwell,' they continued.
'Then he collapsed and was rushed by another ambulance to the Bongani Hospital in Welkom but as the spitting cobra is not native to South Africa there was no anti-venom.
'The venom is both a neurotoxin and a cytotoxin which means it shut down his lungs and suffocated him and also caused severe bleeding and destroyed his body tissues.
'It was
