CHICAGO — A shipment en route to Iowa from the Netherlands has instead been rerouted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
CBP agents intercepted three separate March shipments – each containing two human skulls – that were processed through O’Hare’s International Mail Facility, the agency stated in a news release.
All three shipments originated with the same sender, but why the skulls were being shipped to Iowa remained a mystery, the Des Moines Register reported.
In the past six months, customs agents at the Chicago facility alone have intercepted nearly 1,700 shipments that contained prohibited items, including live snails, meat and plant materials, the agency stated.
LaFonda Sutton-Burke, the agency’s director of field operations in Chicago, stated that such prohibited items can not only harm the environment but also introduce disease, which is why the skulls were rerouted to the CDC for “further disposition.”
“Our nation’s food supply is constantly at risk from pests and disease not known to occur in the U.S.,” Sutton-Burke stated, adding, “These significant interceptions by our CBPAS at the IMF at O’Hare exemplify CBP’s continued commitment to safeguarding American agriculture.”