15 giant snails capable of causing rare forms of meningitis in humans seized at Houston airport

A quarter-pound of beef, fresh leaves and 15 live giant land snails — it's not a recipe, but the confiscated contents of an airline passenger's luggage earlier this month. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the discovery Tuesday, saying that the snails are capable of causing rare forms of meningitis in humans.

CBP said in a statement that the snails were recovered at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. The passenger who brought the giant land snails, also known as banana rasp snails, was traveling from Nigeria. She initially only declared that she had brought dried beef with her, but later added the snails to her declaration, CBP said. Agriculture specialists who were inspecting the passenger's luggage in Houston then found three zip-locked plastic bags that had the live snails inside, along with fresh leaves and about 0.25 pounds of beef, CBP said.