Customs Agents Will Seize That Drug-Filled Dead Cat

Heroin disguised as chocolate bars

The TSA tends to get a bad rap and often ends up the recipient of frequent gripes, especially in the city whose airports lead to three-quarters of takeoff delays nationwide. Maybe it has something to do with the times when we hear that we're waiting in a line that winds down the escalator because they're confiscating cheese, yet having no trouble letting through a passenger with a Hezbollah flag featuring a man wielding an AK-47.

But maybe we should give some of the newer government agents a break more often after learning about some of the more off-the-wall items that custom agents are able to keep out of the potentially unfriendly skies. Today's News talked to TSA officials at local airports and discovered a pretty insane laundry list of what's been confiscated recently. It includes:

Your standard guns, explosives and fireworks
More 007-villain weapons such as nun-chucks, Chinese throwing stars and swords concealed inside canes
Gas-powered chainsaw
Drug-filled dead cat
Suitcase "bursting with wriggling cockroaches"
Frozen monkey head (so maybe they did miss a pygmy marmoset under a man's hat on a flight to Peru)
Dead body in a wheelchair (it's expensive to ship a body back to the country!)
7-pounds of chocolate-coated heroin bars actually produced in a candy factory

Sounds like a Joe Rogan wet dream, right? Maybe we should keep an eye out for the old Fear Factor host the next time the TSA holds one of its auctions of confiscated items. And for visual fun, here's the gallery.

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By Billy Parker in News on March 2, 2009 4:04 PM

Comments [rss]

books

as far as I'm concerned the whole Hezbollah flag story was a pre-meditated PROPAGANDA story.

It put the name of a miltary group fighting Israel which has NEVER hijacked a plane or fought anyone outside of thier own country into the context of America and terrorism...and of course if Americans equate Israels enemies as its own, so much the better for...who exactly?

Its something like this..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarion_Fund

Wza

Wow people are dumb!

Toby von Meistersinger

Of course not pictured is the stuff they took home.

jaycjay

"having no trouble letting through a passenger with a Hezbollah flag featuring a man wielding an AK-47."

Which is probably the right decision, as there's never been a documented case of a terrorist boarding a plane while wearing shirt with an image of either a Hezbollah flag or a man wielding an AK-47.

"Customs != TSA"

Correct, they are separate agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. Customs (now officially called "US Customs and Border Protection) is responsible for enforcing laws about entry of people and goods into the country (they have no role in domestic travel, or travel out of the country), while TSA is responsible for security.

The linked article actually is about items found by both agencies.

LinkMan

Customs != TSA

NannyState

mmm. Jumbo Bars. nom nom nom.

pissyrabbit

I think you mean

"nom nom nod"

Jen Chung

That gallery image of the dude who tried to smuggle in pigeons is amazing.

Felix Hoenikker

For every one of those mules caught, I'd wager 99 got through.

Kudos trying to cheap out on the corpse!

Speaking of drug-filled cats:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/02/odd-bong-cat-030209/