According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) based in Miami International Airport (MIA), officers arrested a passenger attempting to smuggle nine live birds. The passenger was arriving on a flight from Havana, Cuba on January 9, 2016.
CBP officers selected the individual for further examination. During inspection, CBP officers discovered that the passenger was concealing six birds in a fanny bag and three birds in the groin area. As seen in the inset photo, the birds were kept from escaping by a wire mesh.
The individual was arrested and the birds were turned over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Miami Quarantine Station. The smuggling of live animals into the United States is illegal under federal law.
Similar bird smuggling is nothing new from Cuba to the U.S., including in 2002, when a passenger traveling the same route (Havana to Miami) was stopped due to suspicious bulges visible beneath the lower part of his trousers. Officers discovered a total of 44 finches, 12 of which were dead.
“In addition to enforcing both immigration laws and customs laws at the border, CBP enforces laws for many agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Miami International Airport Port Director Christopher Maston.
Well, at least the passenger wasn’t attempting to smuggle in nine crows, because that would have been a murder! [groan]
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