US Border: Weird & Wacky Items Smuggled Into the Country
"Sir, is that a pig's head in your luggage?"
Pigs heads, rodent meat, bags of dead birds - Federal Officers have seen those weird items and more smuggled into the US. Here is a look at some of the strangest things they've seen:
In addition to the pig's head pictured above (which an airplane passenger attempted to smuggle into Atlanta) US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Officers have also found 22,000 counterfeit Pennsylvania vehicle inspection stickers that were shipped from Israel to an address in Philadelphia. Retail value of that many inspection stickers: $1,404,700.
In Chicago, a CBP Agriculture Inspection Officer recently intercepted a bag containing more than a kilo of tasty undeclared Nigerian rodent meat ("Grasscutter" bushmeat - otherwise known as a "Greater Cane Rat" - to be exact).
More "Nigerian Snack Food" was recently seized by CBP Officers in Louisville, Kentucky: an undeclared shipment of 82 dead "Straw Colored Fruit Bats" and assorted species of dried wild bird meat bound for a residential address in West Palm Beach, Florida :
CBP Officers at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC caught a woman attempting to smuggle a bag of "cat treats" from China --- only in this case the "cat treats" were a commercially-packaged bag of "small dead birds" intended for her tabby at home in Maryland!
Then there's bogus Bologna: CBP Officers intercepted 748 pounds of undeclared Mexican Bologna being smuggled into the state inside a suitcase at the Presidio, Texas border crossing from Ojinaga, Mexico on September 23, 2024. Mexican bologna is a prohibited product because it is made from pork and has the potential to introduce foreign animal diseases to the U.S. pork industry.
From Equatorial Guinea came a tasty (?) two-pound shipment of "snake meat" that a smuggler tried to slither into the US at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC on September 11, 2024. A CBP Canine sniffed out the snake steaks and prevented their importation into the country.
Besides forbidden foreign foods, CBP Officers are constantly on the lookout for dangerous and counterfeit products being smuggled into the country. Over the last year, the CBP in Chicago has seized more than 3,000,000 unapproved Chinese e-cigs flavored and packaged to appeal to teens. The street value of these seizures is estimated at 81.5 million dollars.
Last month, In what the agency calls the "largest counterfeit musical instrument seizure on record" CBP Officers intercepted over 3,000 copycat Gibson arriving in ocean containers from Asia. Authentic Gibson guitars are made in the U.S.A. only. Had they been genuine, these (so-called) "Gibson guitars" would have sold for $18,742,820 on the street.
Finally, in two days this month, CBP Officers in Louisville seized more than 900 pieces of counterfeit jewelry displaying the logos of Cartier, Chanel, Fendi, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and Van Cleef and Arpels that were being shipped from Hong Kong and China to addresses in Arizona, Virginia, Florida, and New York. Had the items been real, they would have retailed for $18.81 million.
Last year CBP Officers intercepted nearly 23 million pieces of counterfeit goods worth more than $2.4 billion being smuggled into the U.S.A.
Should the US tighten its borders to prevent smuggling dangerous or counterfeit items?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
