The dehydrated and mummified remains of four monkeys were confiscated by airport security in Boston last month.

According to a press release from United States Customs and Border Protection, a traveler arrived at Boston Logan Airport from The Democratic Republic of the Congo on January 8 of this year. An Airport security dog that goes by the name of K9 Buddey (pictured below) smelled something unusual in the traveler’s bag during routine inspections of Delta flight 225 incoming from Paris and alerted customs officials to the suspicious nature of the luggage, presumably by barking.

The traveler claimed he was only carrying dried fish in his suitcase when asked by customs, but further inspection revealed he was in possession of four dehydrated monkey carcusses. The monkeys are considered to be “bushmeat,” which is a term denoting raw or minimally processed meat from wild animals in Africa often dried, salted or smoked. This includes bats, monkeys, cane rats, antelope and other African animals, none of which are allowed entry into the United States on account of the risk of communicable disease transference.

“The potential dangers posed by bringing bushmeat into the United States are real. Bushmeat can carry germs that can cause illness, including the Ebola virus,” said Julio Caravia, local port director for Customs and Border Protection.

According to Customs and Border Protection, airport authorities immediately contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because apparently that’s the government agency tasked with regulation of mummified primate materials. The CDC reportedly told Delta Airlines to either seize and destroy the four kilograms of monkey meat or return it to France and thus, the primate mummies were marked for destruction.

Apparently a fair amount of illegal monkey meat, among other unsavory and illicit meat from Africa is routinely smuggled into the United States. One estimate from the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance proposed that roughly 15,000 pounds of illegal wildlife meat are smuggled into the U.S. every month, though this figure is very difficult to verify. 

Another report from United States Customs and Border Protection concerning illegal bushmeat smuggling into the state of Minnesota from 2022, customs officials seized over 104 pounds of bushmeat in the last week of 2021 alone.

“Just last week our agriculture specialists stopped a passenger returning from Liberia,” said Augustine Moore, Area Port Director-Minnesota. When officers asked if he had any bushmeat, he said he had “parts of a monkey; turned out it was two primate arms and primate rib material.”

In the 2022 release Customs and Border Protections attested that much like the recent mummified monkey smuggler accosted in Boston, many travelers attempting to smuggle bushmeat into the United States do so by hiding it amongst dried fish, often wrapped in multiple layers of newspaper, plastic, foil and tape. Travelers would often mark fish on customs forms even when specifically asked about bushmeat.

“The intermingling of fish and bushmeat in the same package is common,” Chief Agriculture Specialist Lauren Lewis said in 2022. 

Customs said in the same release that they had a big problem at the time with travelers coming in with bushmeat from Liberia specifically. A private investigator took reporters from ABC news to an open air market in New York in 2009 where cane rat meat was being sold for $20/pound, but with time passed and post-COVID inflation it presumably costs much more in 2024 though I could was not able to verify current bushmeat prices with any reputable source.

“Minnesota’s CBP agriculture specialists are focused on their mission to prevent entry of prohibited items from entering into the United States,” said LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, Director, Field Operations-Chicago in 2022. “The sheer volume of bushmeat our specialist[s] intercept clearly shows how they play a critical role in preventing diseases from entering the United States.”

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Monday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) in Orlando, Florida posted a photo on X, formerly known as Twitter, gloating over a large bust involving 18 pounds of what appears to be brick weed that was found at Orlando International Airport.

“Karma ruins Central Florida marijuana delivery,” Yahoo! News reports. Cannabis isn’t tolerated quite yet in Florida airports, especially not in amounts that large.

While Florida approved Amendment 2, allowing for medical cannabis, airport officials went out of their way to clarify no pot is allowed onsite. The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority Board promptly issued a policy that bans visitors from traveling with their prescription cannabis at the airport. The reason for the policy is to avoid potential conflicts with the Federal Aviation Authority board, which provides grants to the Orlando International Airport.

Police proudly posed Karma in front of the suitcase. “OCSO K9 Karma would like to meet the owner of this suitcase found at baggage claim with 18lbs of marijuana inside of it. Thanks to K9 Karma and her skilled detection, these drugs will never make it to the streets of Orlando.”

Eighteen pounds of pot is below the 25-pound threshold that normally enhances a possession charge to a trafficking charge, as defined under Florida Statute 893.1351(4). But at airports, federal law trumps state law.

Commenters were not having it. “Imagine liquor is legal where you live, which ruins far more lives than weed ever could, but you can’t relax with a joint & munchies to watch your favorite movie,” one commenter posted. “How ridiculous.”

“This was a waste of money, resources, and time,” another commenter wrote. “I know y’all have to be transparent, but sounding proud of it sounds, really bad.”

This comes at a time when police routinely get roasted for bragging about pot busts that are posted on social media. In one post, cops in Tenaha County in Texas fanned out one-dollar bills on a table after arresting three twenty-some-year-olds in a post that was supposed to impress people. Commenters roasted details in the photo, like an empty canister and empty baggies spread across the table.

Pot busts aren’t celebrated by all when dozens of states have legalized it in one form or another—even when it involves 18 pounds of the plant.

Drug-Sniffing Dogs and Pot

Karma’s days as a drug dog could be numbered, however. At least when it comes to common traffic stops on the road.

Cannabis legalization is putting police dogs out of work. The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota, for instance, recently told USA Today last July that their last few drug-sniffing dogs are headed for retirement.

According to USA Today, a 2005 Supreme Court decision essentially means that if a dog detects drugs during a traffic stop, the officer has probable cause to search your car without a warrant. He adds that when a dog smelled weed in his jurisdiction, it could often lead to the discovery of illegal firearms or other drugs. But that could fall apart fast in court in states that have legalized forms of cannabis.

In 2015, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that searching a vehicle involving drug-sniffing dogs was a clear violation of the shield that is supposed to protect Americans from unreasonable seizures. 

“We hold that a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures,” the ruling states. “A seizure justified only by a police-observed traffic violation, therefore, ‘becomes unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission’ of issuing a ticket for the violation.”

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Minnesota legalized cannabis, and as a result, some dogs are out of a job. Canine officers such as Jango, a 9-year-old German shepherd, and Cobra, a 10-year-old Belgian Malinois, are set to retire soon after the law goes into effect on August 1, Capt. Ryan Mangan said, according to USA Today. 

These pups are the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office’s only K-9s left trained to detect cannabis. Police dogs across the country are losing work as departments like Mangan’s no longer teach them how to smell your weed. If cannabis legalization continues to spread, it’s likely that these departments will never offer this class again. Meanwhile, cats are curled up at home, unaware that some animals actually have to work for a living. 

Jango and Cobra are good old dogs (even police dogs are good dogs) already at the end of their careers. Their early retirement, which they get to begin enjoying after switching departments into patrol work, starts in September. Congrats to Jango and Cobra. If the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office is reading this, please don’t forget to throw them a proper cop retirement party. 

But while doggos like Jango and Cobra may be out of a job, police are still interested in the canine job market. There are still plenty of illegal drugs, from cocaine to opioids, for them to sniff out with their cute snouts. However, apparently, you can’t untrain a dog. So any canine officers who pick up the smell of weed are getting sacked. They could compromise searches and get human cops in trouble. 

While police dogs’ ability to snitch based on smelling cannabis smoke has been well-utilized by police departments, the skill set came with risks even before cannabis legalization swept the country. 

Cannabis is also now legal in Maryland. According to Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble, per USA Today, a 2005 Supreme Court decision means that if a dog detects drugs during a traffic stop, the officer has probable cause to search your car without a warrant. He adds that when a dog smelled weed in his jurisdiction, it could often lead to the discovery of illegal firearms or other drugs. 

However, should these searches lead to court, the search could be challenged if the dog was trained in detecting cannabis. This is why Raven, a very good Labrador retriever, was sent into retirement on July 1st. Then, there’s poor Kato, who was shuffled into patrol work just like Jango and Cobra in Minnesota. Kato now faces either retirement or being sold to a police department in a state where cannabis is still illegal. 

“We just don’t need the headache of defense attorneys,” Gamble said. 

Apparently, police dogs try very hard to be good police dogs and please their human cops. Lawrence Myers, a retired Auburn University professor who has studied detection dogs, told USA Today that while the dogs are a “great tool,” they are also susceptible to bias. A 2019 investigation by the Louisville Courier Journal found that in nearly half of the 139 traffic stops since 2017 in which drug K-9s suggested the presence of narcotics inside a vehicle, none were found. 

“I’ve been an expert witness on I have no idea how many cases involving all sorts of things including drugs,” Myers said. “And in some cases, I’m afraid certain officers have viewed the dog as a search warrant on a leash.”

If you’d like to help a former cop dog, check out Mission K9. While many police pups are adopted by their handlers, the organization can even help you adopt a retired dog, in addition to offering rehabilitation services. Aside from helping these pups transition back to dog-civilian life, they even help rehabilitate the very brave police dogs who survived trauma while on the job. 

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On the outside, they looked like dehumidifiers. A look inside the appliances revealed more than a million bucks worth of contraband. That was the haul intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers––and their trusty narcotics detector dog, Bruno––in Cincinnati over the weekend.

The dog apparently alerted the officers “to a shipment of dehumidifiers, with each one containing vacuum sealed bags containing marijuana” on Saturday, the agency said.

The shipments arrived in the port of Cincinnati “and while conducting canine operations, Bruno alerted to these dehumidifiers that were arriving from Ontario, Canada.”

“Officers inspected the first shipment and discovered vacuum sealed bags hidden inside the dehumidifier cases. Officers tested the substance which was positive for marijuana. Officers then inspected all 12 dehumidifiers and discovered that each one had concealed bags containing marijuana-413 pounds in total,” Customs and Border Protection said in a press release.

CBP said that the shipment was “heading to a company based in Great Britain and the illicit narcotics had an approximate street value of $1.10 million.”

LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, the director of field operations in CBP’s Chicago Field Office, praised the work of Bruno.

“Our canine teams are an invaluable asset to the CBP enforcement strategy,” Sutton-Burke said in the press release. “These interdictions are a testament to the hard work, dedication and training these teams employ on a daily basis protecting America.”

The agency “emphasized that transnational criminals are desperate and will take any measures within their reach to get their illegal narcotics across our borders.”

“Our officers have been trained to identify and stop shipments that pose a threat to our nation and our international counterparts. We are committed to the CBP mission and continue to assist our law enforcement allies around the world,” Richard Gillespie, Cincinnati’s port director, said in the press release.

While recreational cannabis has been legal in a growing number of states––and Democrats in Washington continue to flirt with the idea of ending prohibition on the federal level––the U.S. Customs and Border Protection continues to intercept weed on the U.S. border and in the country’s ports.

In April, shortly after New Mexico became the latest state to legalize adult-use cannabis, the Customs and Border Protection issued a stern warning to anyone carrying weed in the state.

“Border Patrol agents have drug enforcement authority. Marijuana is still a prohibited drug under Schedule 1 of The United States Controlled Substances Act. Therefore, U.S. Border Patrol agents will continue to take appropriate enforcement action against those who are encountered in possession of marijuana anywhere in the United States,” the agency said at the time.

Earlier this month, Border Patrol agents in Texas “seized over 200 pounds of marijuana in two separate events within five hours,” the agency said.

CBP said that agents “assigned to Bike Patrol observed multiple subjects carrying bundles away from the Rio Grande in Escobares [Texas].”

“Additional agents responded and interdicted just as the smugglers attempted to load the narcotics into an awaiting Chevrolet Tahoe. The Tahoe departed the area as the smugglers abandoned the bundles and absconded back toward the river. Agents seized three bundles of marijuana weighing 115 pounds and valued at 92,000 USD,” CBP said in its press release.

Then, shortly after midnight the following day, “agents observed a group of ten subjects walking away from the Rio Grande south of Cuevitas,” ultimately discovering 90 pounds worth of cannabis.

“One of the Mexican nationals, along with the narcotics, was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety to face state charges,” the agency said in the press release.

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