Something weird went down at Los Angeles International Airport this month. Federal agents seized a bunch of odd items coming in from overseas, including elephant meat, and a dried out monkey carcass, the latter of which was declared a “gift” on customs paperwork.
In less than a week authorities grabbed the items, likely being smuggled into the U.S. for resale.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection field operations director Todd Owen, the unit intercepts a “multitude of remarkable items.”
From the Los Angeles Times:
On May 6, officers at Los Angeles International Airport checked the bag of a 31-year-old man coming in from Nigeria. He declared a number of handbags that turned out to be made of prohibited reptile skin, including 98 of African rock pythons, 19 of monitor lizard, 85 of dwarf crocodile, 179 of cobra and six of puff adder snake.
Three days later, officers examined an item headed for Fresno from Thailand. The package contained almost half a pound of elephant meat, which is banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, officials said.
To cap off the regular workweek on May 10, officers stopped a gift that was flagged for North Port, Fla., from Indonesia. That ended up being a dead Macaque monkey, officials said.
The seized cargo has since been transferred over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
See photos below, and be warned: that tiny dead monkey will spoil your appetite.
Trust us.
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Photos: U.S Custom & Border Protection/David McNew
