BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A routine inspection at the Brownsville Port of Entry turned into a wildlife smuggling bust after three live parrots were discovered hidden inside a vehicle.<\/p>\n
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers say the discovery happened March 13 at the Gateway International Bridge, where officers referred a 2007 GMC Yukon for a secondary inspection. <\/p>\n
During that search, agents found the birds concealed inside a box, according to CBP.<\/p>\n
\u201cParrots are protected species and our frontline officers work diligently to prevent suspected attempts to smuggle them as part of the illegal animal trade,\u201d said Port Director Tater Ortiz of the Brownsville Port of Entry. \u201cExotic birds may carry various diseases not known to exist in the U.S. that could endanger native wildlife and U.S. agriculture, resulting in potential economic harm as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities said Homeland Security Investigations has launched a criminal probe into the case. CBP also coordinated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure the parrots were safely transported to a local zoo.<\/p>\n
Parrots are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a global agreement that regulates the trade of certain animals and plants to prevent exploitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A routine inspection at the Brownsville Port of Entry turned into a wildlife smuggling bust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-213234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}