U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agriculture specialists are trained to look for goods that are prohibited from entering the United States. But they also need traits that aren’t listed as job requirements, like an unflappable nature and a strong stomach.

It is almost impossible to imagine the assortment of things, and the methods travelers’ employ to bring in their special brand of contraband. As CBP officers and agriculture specialists look through baggage, they expect to find the usual: swimsuits, sweaters, snakes, pants, parrots, and toiletries. Wait a minute—snakes and parrots?

Photo Credit: Jim Armstrong

Passenger attempts to smuggle rare birds into the country by taping them to his legs. One or two birds, with legs and beaks bound, are inserted into each tube.

Wildlife, dead or alive, is popular contraband and is brought into the United States for any number of reasons. Birds, lizards and snakes top the list, but bats, snails and anteaters are not uncommon. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), Veterinarian Services; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the Public Health Service have responsibilities for establishing policy regarding wildlife or meat importation, CBP officers and agricultural specialists may be the first to find these illegal imports.

Though the prestige of having a unique pet or specimen drives some, money is the ultimate force behind the wildlife trade on the black market. Importing wildlife is extremely lucrative, and many believe it ranks second in profits only to illegal drug traffic. For example, a bird caught in the rain forest and sold there is worth $20 dollars, but that same bird sells for $2,000 to $4,000 in the United States.

Why regulate?

Regulating the importation of wildlife isn’t just an effort to stymie hobbyists. It’s intended to keep our livestock and crops safe from contamination by non-indigenous diseases or pests, protect endangered species, and prevent invasive species from entering our country. Controls also exist to preserve the public health.

Wild birds can bring in diseases that are unknown to our geographic area. Exotic Newcastle disease, a highly contagious virus, can spread quickly to poultry and caged birds. Because of their vulnerability to this virus, one infected bird can spread the disease rapidly to others in proximity and then from location to location. From 1971 to 1974, there was an outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in southern California, which resulted in the destruction of 12 million birds and cost U.S. taxpayers $56 million to eradicate. USDA epidemiologists studying the disease traced these outbreaks directly to smuggled birds.

Outbreaks of monkey pox and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), both of which can be transmitted from animals to humans, have focused public attention on the health issues that can result from illegal importations. In addition, uncontrolled harvesting of wildlife can have an environmental impact—trees are cut down and nesting areas destroyed resulting in permanent destruction of the habitats.

Ants in your pants? Or is it monkeys?

Take the case of Californian Robert Cusack. While undergoing a routine inspection at Los Angeles International Airport, a CBP officer opened Cusack’s suitcase. Imagine the surprise when a bird of paradise flew out. Careful examination found three more birds slipped inside nylon stockings and 50 orchids of an endangered species.

When asked if there was anything else, he volunteered, "Yes, I've got monkeys in my pants." And indeed, Cusack had a pair of pygmy monkeys inside his pant legs. Cusack defended his actions by saying he was a concerned environmentalist who had purchased the animals in Jakarta, Indonesia and was taking them to a Costa Rican wildlife sanctuary. Nonetheless, he was arrested for smuggling.

Smugglers try every trick in the book to bring in their illicit cargo. Airport x-ray systems have made it harder to smuggle birds and reptiles in baggage or cargo, so smugglers use couriers to move their contraband traffic. Eggs of rare macaws, the largest breed of parrot, can be hidden in a vest or a pocket. Once these eggs, worth several thousand dollars each, reach their destination, it is impossible to tell if they came from a legal captive bird or a wild one.

Stories abound. Fish smuggled in gas tanks of vehicles, reptiles wrapped and taped around a person, birds drugged with their beaks and feet taped in PVC pipes in a suitcase, and the list goes on. Craig Hoover, the Deputy Director of the North America office of TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors trade in wild animals and animal products, says, "I've seen everything . . .birds stuffed in tennis ball cans, inserted into false compartments in vehicles. I had someone try to smuggle a live toucan taped to the small of his back. There have been examples of primates—small monkeys—smuggled inside hand luggage.”

Grandpa’s family sausage recipe

Contraband may also be food (bush meat) or animal parts used for religious rituals or

medicinal purposes. Travelers carrying the head of an anteater, a dyker, lizard, or rodents in their luggage may be bringing in for friends and family what is considered a delicacy in their country. In fact, non-English-speaking travelers may go to great lengths to show that something they are carrying is food. Jose Estrada, a CBP officer in Baltimore, says, “Travelers who bring in smoked bats will eat them right in front of you to make the point that they are food and thus will not harm anything.” Animals and animal parts are also used as medicines—tiger and rhino skeletons are ground up and used in traditional Chinese medicines, and animal parts hold a place in rituals for many cults and religions practiced around the world.

CBP officers and agriculture specialists must use diplomacy and sensitivity in their interaction with the traveling public. James M. Armstrong, a 13-year veteran of the USDA and now a CBP port canine coordinator for agriculture detector dogs at JFK International Airport, says, “Most passengers bringing in food or meat products are not smugglers and have innocent motives. In our interaction with passengers, we have to be sensitive to the value of food. We confiscate a sausage because it could bring in the organism that causes hog cholera, but for the passenger, it is more than just a sausage. That sausage is granddad’s recipe and uses apples from a generations old family orchard. It represents culture and tradition, areas charged with emotion.”

Whether it is a monkey peeping out from a passenger’s coat, a suitcase full of sheep entrails, or a couple of oranges from the family orchard, CBP officers and agriculture specialists must be steadfast as they protect our agriculture, our livestock and our health from purposeful or inadvertent contamination. LK