New York man arrested after CBP officers seize 65 pounds of khat in passenger baggage at Dulles Airport

A New York City man is facing felony drug charges after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered 65 pounds of khat (Catha edulis) in his baggage on Wednesday night at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police arrested Bakari Wally, 24, a U.S. citizen from the Bronx, Thursday morning and charged him with possession with the intent to distribute and transporting a controlled substance into the Commonwealth of Virginia.

CBP officers referred Wally to a secondary examination after he arrived from Casablanca, Morocco, and discovered bags of a dried organic substance in his checked baggage. Field tests identified the organic substance as khat.

The khat weighed 29.6 kilograms, or 65 pounds, four ounces. It has a street value of about $8,000.

CBP officers seized the khat and turned Wally over to MWAA Police officers.

“Travelers who smuggle illegal products to the United States will quickly learn that Customs and Border Protection will find it and we will work with our law enforcement partners to pursue severe consequences, including felony criminal charges as this traveler is facing,” said CBP Area Port Director Christine Waugh, Area Port of Washington, D.C. “Smugglers should know that the risk of prison time is not worth what transnational criminal organizations pay them to violate our nation’s laws.”

Khat, known as Abyssinian tea and African salad, is typically grown in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and is chewed for its amphetamine-like effect. Users also boil dried khat leaves to create a stimulant tea.

According to the DEA, khat contains two central nervous system stimulants — cathinone, which is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, and cathine, a Schedule IV controlled substance. Symptoms of khat toxicity include delusions, loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, and increased blood pressure and heart rate. The World Health Organization classified khat as a drug of abuse in 1980.

CBP officers have observed an increase in khat being smuggled in traveler baggage. On Aug. 20, CBP officers seized 764 pounds on khat in the baggage of two men and on Aug. 14 seized 368 pounds of khat in another man’s baggage at Dulles airport. CBP officers also seized 412 pounds of khat and 847 pounds of khat in separate seizures in August at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

CBP officers and agents seized about 46,000 pounds of khat last fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025) and seized over 30,000 pounds of khat so far during the first 10 months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2025, through Aug. 31, 2026).

Every day, CBP officers and agents seized an average of about 1,600 pounds of dangerous drugs last year at and between our nation’s air, sea, and land ports of entry. See CBP’s enforcement stats to learn about what else CBP is encountering at our nation’s borders.