Sixty-seven live giant African snails have been
seized by US customs agents. The snails, which are prohibited in the US, were found by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors at Los Angeles International Airport. They arrived from Nigeria and were intended for a person in California, said Lee Harty, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.
The molluscs are among the largest land snails in the world and can grow up to 8ins (20cm) long, said officials.
The US Department of Agriculture put the snails in an incinerator after they were inspected, said Harty, because they can carry parasites that are harmful to humans, including one that can lead to meningitis.
They are also potentially damaging to nature, said Maveeda Mirza, the CBP programme manager for agriculture.
"These snails are seriously harmful to local plants because they will eat any kind of crop they can get to," said Ms Mirza, who added that investigations were continuing into why one person would want so many.
"We're investigating what happened, but it doesn't seem like there was smuggling involved," she said.
This is the first time that they have confiscated such a large quantity, she added, although there have been cases of much smaller numbers being found to be accidentally in people's luggage.

"These snails are seriously harmful to local plants because they will eat any kind of crop they can get to," said Ms Mirza, who added that investigations were continuing into why one person would want so many.

nkpommpko: They are just jealous of africa,don't they eat them? When they dicover how to produce them and can them the will start exporting it to us, and we won't say no because its from america. Afrca should rise up and stop sending this people our raw goods

wesley80:

The bolded is evidence that every race has it's folly! Just like our penchant for setting up committees, White folks are launching an investigation into the obvious! Why would anyone fly dozens of snails 6,000 miles across the ocean to destroy American habitat? Do they even realize these "mollusks" are edible?

Arosa:

LoL, I used to Think that too, but the truth is that they are just concerned about their local plants been eaten up by our giant snail. What they are trying to do is called "protection of local habitat from invading species".

SLIDEwaxie: biliv me, they are only going to conserve and rear them. The rest is a lie as alwys!

Obiagelli:
countries dont just accepted plants/seedlings/animals into their territory anyhow because it could alter their natural habitat.

wesley80:

Of course they don't, but it should be obvious in a situation like this that someone was planning on having a snail feast. The entire suspicion and investigation is unnecessary IMO.