It’s ‘whack-a-mole’: Alarming rise in pet trade fuels wildlife trafficking into California

Mongabay
Nov 25, 2025, 8:38 am68 pts
In October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at California’s Otay Mesa border crossing noticed an odd bulge inside a man’s pants. Jesse Agus Martinez, a U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana, repeatedly claimed the bump was “pirrin,” a Spanish word for penis. His history of smuggling birds into…

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