Man arrested on suspicion of smuggling exotic parakeets inside cowboy boots across border

Caleb Lunetta, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 1, 2025

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SAN DIEGO — A 54-year-old man was arrested and charged in San Diego federal court this week on allegations that he attempted to smuggle exotic parakeets across the U.S.-Mexico border by hiding the birds inside his cowboy boots.

The alleged smuggler, a Mexican citizen, was arrested on suspicion of hiding the birds in nylon stockings concealed inside his boots. He was charged with illegal importation and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, federal prosecutors said.

The arrest occurred shortly after the man crossed the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in a Jeep Grand Cherokee on Tuesday, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. After identifying himself as a Mexican citizen with a Global Entry card, the man told the border inspection officer that he had nothing to declare and that he was heading to San Diego, prosecutors said.

A computer-generated alert told the officer to send the man to a secondary inspection station, court documents read. While there, an officer noticed a bulge around the man’s ankles.

During a pat down, the officer discovered six orange fronted parakeets hidden inside the man’s boots, prosecutors said. A photo from the arrest shows the birds tightly wrapped in pantyhose that are sticking out the backside of the man’s boot above his right ankle.

“The birds were placed in a bird cage with food and water until they could be cared for by veterinary services,” prosecutors said in the complaint. “Some of the birds appeared to have injuries on their feet where they were tied.”

A day later, Customs and Border Protection staff said they could hear more bird cries from inside the vehicle, according to court documents. Six more parakeets were then found inside the seat cushion of the Jeep’s passenger seat.

The birds were wrapped in similar pantyhose and bound. Prosecutors said that two of the birds were dead, one of the birds had a broken neck, and three of the birds were still alive but in poor health.

Officials said the birds are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and are native to western Mexico and Costa Rica.

The man presented no legal paperwork for the animals, according to prosecutors, and concealing them meant they would have entered the states without undergoing quarantine. Without a secluded period and monitoring, officials said the birds could have been a risk for spreading zoonotic diseases, such as bird flu.

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