{"id":365190,"date":"2026-06-18T03:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365190\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T03:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:27:09","slug":"officials-find-139-pounds-of-khat-shipped-to-sacramento-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365190\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials find 139 pounds of khat shipped to Sacramento CA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781753227_768_SAC generic police still chyron frame.png\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"\" alt=\"Police tape at crime scene\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Federal customs officials at Washington Dulles Airport seized 139 pounds of Ethiopian khat, a plant chewed for its amphetamine-like effect, that was destined for Sacramento.<\/p>\n<p>Customs officials on June 4 found and confiscated the khat with a street-value of about $17,000 that was being shipped in air cargo from Ethiopia to Sacramento, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/local-media-release\/dulles-cbp-seizes-139-pounds-ethiopian-khat-destined-sacramento\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/a> announced Wednesday in a news release. The confiscated khat was destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>Khat, which is known as Abyssinian tea and African salad, is typically grown in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, customs officials said. Dried khat leaves are also boiled to create a stimulant tea.<\/p>\n<p>Khat contains two central nervous system stimulants, cathinone and cathine, according to the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov\/drug_chem_info\/khat.pdf\">U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a>. Cathinone, considered to be the principal active stimulant, is structurally similar to d-amphetamine and at its highest levels when khat is harvested.<\/p>\n<p>The DEA classifies cathinone as a schedule 1 drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Cathine is classified as a Schedule IV controlled substance. Symptoms of khat toxicity include delusions, loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, and increased blood pressure and heart rate. Customs officials said the World Health Organization classified khat as a drug of abuse in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe khat plant is prohibited from being imported to the United States because its active chemical ingredients are controlled substances,\u201d Christine Waugh, CBP\u2019s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C., said in the news release.<\/p>\n<p>CBP officers and agents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/stats\/drug-seizure-statistics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seized about 46,000 pounds of khat<\/a> last fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025) and has seized about 10,000 pounds during the first seven months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026).<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/239969303\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SAC_LS_2022_Rosalio_Ahumada.JPG\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Rosalio Ahumada\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/239969303\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rosalio Ahumada<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal customs officials at Washington Dulles Airport seized 139 pounds of Ethiopian khat, a plant chewed for its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-365190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}