A rattlesnake rancher named Bayou Bob got locked up last week for selling rattlesnake vodka.

But it wasn't the rattler in each bottle that caused the problem.

Bayou Bob Popplewell, 63, surrendered to authorities Monday and spent ten minutes in jail after the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission accused him of selling alcohol without a license and possessing alcohol with intent to sell. If convicted, he faces up to a year in jail and $1,000 in fines.

Bayou Bob has raised rattlesnakes and turtles at Bayou Bob's Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch for more than two decades in Santo, about 60 miles west of Fort Worth.

Recently he started marketing vodka with a rattlesnake inside as an "ancient Asian elixir," a "healing tonic," in his words, an "almost spiritual thing." He said he has customers of Asian descent who believe the concoction has medicinal properties.

Popplewell, 63, said he uses the cheapest vodka he can find as a preservative for the snakes. The end result is a super sweet mixed drink that Popplewell compared to cough syrup. Investigators confiscated 429 bottles of snake vodka and one bottle of snake tequila. 

For the Associated Press story, click here.

(Photo by Associated Press)