Officials of the Los Angeles International Airport have seized and destroyed a consignment of 67 African snails sent from Nigeria to a resident in the US, saying the snails are poisonous and highly destructive. The snail consignment arrived in the States from Nigeria on July 1st in a blue basket pictured above.
The snails according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture are prohibited because they can carry parasites that are harmful to humans, including one that can lead to meningitis. They also say it can destroy local crops.
Maveeda Mirza, the U.S Customs and Border Protection program manager say they are investigating why an individual would want to consume such an amount of deadly snails.
"We're investigating what happened, but it doesn't seem like there was smuggling involved. When someone doesn't know a commodity is prohibited under USDA regulations there is usually no punishment," she said.