A man arriving to the U.S. on a flight from Morocco was caught with a significant amount of illicit stimulants in his luggage, federal authorities say.
The bust unfolded on Wednesday night at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) referred the traveler for secondary inspection after finding “bags of a dried organic substance in his checked baggage.”
Testing revealed that the substance was khat, a drug popular in the Middle East and Africa.
One reason Yemen is so impoverished is roughly 80% of the male population is addicted to Khat. They're high almost all the time. pic.twitter.com/pBuE2NDUZk
— Lee Kuan Yimby (@LeeKuanYimby) September 19, 2026
CBP seized over 65 pounds of khat with an approximate street value of $8,000.
Bakari Wally, 24, a U.S. citizen from the Bronx, was taken into custody by airport police and charged with possession with the intent to distribute and transporting a controlled substance into the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“CBP officers have observed an increase in khat being smuggled in traveler baggage. On Aug. 20, CBP officers seized 764 pounds on khat in the baggage of two men and on Aug. 14 seized 368 pounds of khat in another man’s baggage at Dulles airport. CBP officers also seized 412 pounds of khat and 847 pounds of khat in separate seizures in August at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport,” CBP stated in a press release.
CBP seized approximately 46,000 pounds of khat in FY25 and has confiscated about 30,000 pounds of the drug so far in FY26.
Almost half of the arable farmland and fresh water in Yemen is dedicated to khat growing pic.twitter.com/5nNDMlIdq8
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 19, 2026
Khat is also known as Abyssinian tea and African salad.
It is typically grown in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is chewed for amphetamine-like effects. Users also boil dried khat leaves to create a stimulant tea.
