San Juan, Apr 26 (EFE).– Puerto Rican drug agents on Tuesday found a caiman inside an abandoned apartment in the San Juan district of Rio Piedras while they were carrying out monitoring operations in the area.

The Puerto Rico police issued a statement saying that the agents also found two ammunition clips and many rounds of ammo in the apartment.

The officers turned the animal, who was found in the apartment’s laundry area and measured approximately 3.5 feet long, over to the island’s Natural Resources Department.

The find, which might seem unusual, is not an isolated case in recent years in the U.S. commonwealth, where exotic species have proliferated after being introduced as pets from South America but then abandoned by their owners when they reach adulthood.

Caimans, boa constrictors and assorted species of monkeys have been found in recent years living on the island, where – apart from the danger they pose to the public – they cause additional problems in terms of the damage they do to agriculture and the local fauna.

The invasive species that do the most damage in Puerto Rico are the green iguana and rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and patas monkeys. EFE