Man busted with dozens of birds hidden in hair curlers at JFK airport

July 2024 · 2 minute read

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This birdbrain failed to fly under the radar.

A smuggler redefined “flying cheep” after getting busted Sunday at John F. Kennedy International Airport with 29 live birds concealed inside hair rollers.

The 26-year-old Georgetown, Guyana, native was en route to New Jersey when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uncovered the finches during a luggage inspection, Fox News reported.

And while the fly roller wasn’t criminally charged, he will be forced to pay a $300 fine.

The would-be trafficker was flown back to Guyana Monday while the critters were quarantined and handed over to the US Department of Agriculture Veterinary Services.

Alas, this Guyana guy was not an original: Another birdbrain attempted to smuggle a whopping 70 finches through JFK airport in 2018 — and was similarly busted by CBP officers.

Although these hair-raising smuggling methods might sound hilarious — US customs takes bird-trafficking seriously due to the threat of avian flu, which resulted in the deaths and/or intentional cullings of 50 million chickens and turkeys in the US in 2015.

On a related note last month, a mutating strain of bird flu emerging in Russia was found to have “a fairly high degree of probability” of human-to-human transmission, the head of the country’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, warned in a report.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time in 2021 that someone has tried to smuggle contraband via hair product. Last month, Indian smugglers were apprehended at the airport attempting to hide gold and stacks of cash under their glued-on wigs.

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