Border authorities caught an African traveler transporting a primate corpse at an airport in Chicago this week.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) located the disturbing item at O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday.
CBP says “Agricultural Specialists seized a dead non-human primate on April 8, 2026, from a traveler arriving from Cameroon.”
“CDC confirmed health concerns, leading to seizure and destruction.”
Gruesome photographs indicate the primate was almost fully intact and still had teeth and fur.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
PHOTOS: African Caught Entering US With Dead Primate
Border authorities caught an African traveler transporting a primate corpse at an airport in Chicago this week.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) located the disturbing item at O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday.… pic.twitter.com/J3iRF83lnq
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) April 11, 2026
While the intended purpose of the carcass remains unclear, it likely would have been consumed as “bush meat” or used in voodoo rituals, as is common in many African nations.
In December, another African was busted with four pounds of nonhuman primate meat at O’Hare International.
Agricultural Specialists also discovered nearly 30 pounds of beans with pests and unknown plants in the luggage of the traveler, who arrived from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
CBP frequently intercepts alarming and potentially dangerous “exotic foods” being carried by travelers arriving from Third World countries.
In July, officers made two significant busts days apart at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
“In the first instance, a baggage examination yielded 11 pounds of rodent meat from Togo, a country in West Africa, while another just days later resulted in the discovery of 52 pounds of primate meat, which was declared as antelope, from the Central African nation of Gabon. Both travelers also had additional, undeclared agriculture items in their possession,” CBP stated at the time.
Both travelers were fined $300.
