NY’s Haul of the Wild

Pickled cobra that “cures” kidney problems. Chinese Viagra made with deer penis. Balms filled with powdered tiger bone. Bushels of bushmeat.

These are just a few of the exotic and unlawful imports that pour into New York City daily.

And when the black-market booty is not seized by federal agents at airports, they can be found on the shelves of China town apothecaries, Bronx botanicas or swap meets in ethnic neighborhoods throughout the city.

Last week, feds arrested Simon Chaw for stuffing 16 live Asian Bonytongue fish into his suitcase, which he brought on a flight from Malaysia. He’d packed the fish in bags of water and protected them with Styrofoam.

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A Post interpreter was told recently in Chinatown that he could buy bear gall bladder to clean his blood, and deer penis to improve his sexual prowess.

Inspectors say many strange objects are used in so-called traditional Chinese medicines–thought to cure everything from a toothache to cancer.

Onda said the Chinese use “medicine mules” like other cultures use “drug mules”–smuggling into the country thousands of hidden pills containing ground-up tiger and leopard bone.

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This month, a Liberian-born Staten Island woman, Mamie Manneh, was sentenced to three years probation for smuggling 65 pieces of African bushmeat from illegally poached wild animals.

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Still, inspectors are constantly surprised by the strange imports they encounter–such as the cobra pickled in rice wine that was found on a recent flight from Thailand to JFK.

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