If the line at Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s international customs counter seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace recently, there was a good reason.
An incident unfolded “after a passenger arriving from Ghana was referred for a secondary examination after declaring various fresh food items,” according to a Customs and Border Protection statement obtained by ABC News.
There, inspectors found a bag with 90 giant African snails about 3 to 6 inches long inside.
The snails were “humanely euthanized,” U.S. agriculture officials tell the outlet, to ensure the snails, which have a “voracious appetite and cause major crop damage when they escape into the environment,” didn’t enter the ecosystem.