Customs and Border Protection agents at Chicago O’Hare International Airport have arrested three people from Senegal accused of trying to smuggle more than a half-ton of the illegal drug khat into the U.S.
The seizure of the drug and the arrests occurred in two stings at the Chicago airport Aug. 19-20, Customs and Border Protection said in a release. Customs officials did not name any of the suspects.
Khat, also called “African salad” or “Abyssinian tea,” is grown mostly in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Users can chew khat leaves or boil them into a tea for its stimulant effects similar to amphetamines.
Officers inspected two of the Senegalese suspects after they landed and before they boarded their next plane, due to fly to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. The customs agents found 167 packages of khat weighing a total of 755 pounds, Customs and Border Protection said.
On Thursday, agents took the third suspect for a secondary baggage inspection and found 93 packages of khat weighing a total of 417 pounds. The total value of the 1,172 pounds of seized khat on the street is more than $140,000, customs officials said.
The three suspects face Illinois state charges for trafficking of a controlled substance and manufacture or delivery of 200 or more grams of a schedule I or schedule II controlled substance. Cathinone, one of the active stimulant chemicals in khat, is a Schedule I substance, customs officials said.
The recent seizures at Chicago O’Hare come after a series of khat busts at airports in the Washington metropolitan area. Nearly 1,270 pounds were seized in multiple incidents at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and another 368 pounds were seized at Washington Dulles International Airport, customs officials said.
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