You've gator be kidding !

Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma found an alligator stashed in the suitcase of a California man who was on his way to Phoenix. The agents found the 4-foot, 4-year-old cayman alligator during a routine checkpoint search on Interstate 8 on Thursday night, agency spokesman Lloyd Easterling said.

Easterling said a drug-sniffing dog became alert near the man's car. Inside, agents found 13 grams of marijuana. Then agents asked the man, whose name was not released, if he had anything else inside the car they should know about.

"The guy says, 'There's an alligator in there,'" Easterling said. "He says, 'He's in the suitcase there.' And when (the agent) opened the suitcase, sure enough, there was a cayman in there."

Rebecca Wright, law enforcement program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Yuma, took the feisty reptile back to her office to await shipment to a Phoenix animal refuge.

"When I took him to my office, he was pretty saucy," Wright said. "He was interested in not being in the pet porter anymore, and I was very interested in keeping him in there."

The man was cited for possessing restricted wildlife and was taken into custody by the Arizona Department of Public Safety in connection with the marijuana. Possessing restricted wildlife is a Class 2 misdemeanor and carries penalties of up to four months in jail and up to $750 in fines, Wright said.

She said the man was taking the alligator from somewhere in California to deliver to another person in Phoenix.

While Easterling said agents often find exotic pets at the checkpoint, they haven't come across many alligators. "It's certainly surprising," he said.

Wright said it's the fourth alligator she has seen in the Yuma area in the last 17 years. She said they're more common in Phoenix, where there have been 20 seizures of reptiles in the crocodile family in the last six months.

"It's always been, over the years, they have been a novelty pet for people," she said.

The alligator was being evaluated by the Phoenix Herpetological Society, a nonprofit reptile sanctuary, and likely will end up in a zoo or wildlife park, Wright said.

"He was a very healthy and beautiful animal," Wright said. "He will be given meals of chicken with vitamins sprinkled on top."