Officials confiscate dreamcatcher with monkey skull, python bones at Detroit Metro Airport

A handcrafted dreamcatcher that included a monkey skull and python bones was recently confiscated at Detroit Metro Airport. 

The assembled design was so tall that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shared a video on social media to show how long the knotwork piece was in person. A dreamcatcher, a spiritual item popular in some cultures, features a web design meant to trap bad dreams while its owner sleeps.

"Not a dream," Marty C. Raybon, Customs and Border Protection Director of Field Operations for Detroit, said in a social media post on Monday. "These are both protected species that require permits — dead or alive." 

The interception of this piece was credited to Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  

Customs and Border Protection staff work at ports of entry, enforcing a variety of laws that prohibit unsafe items from entering the United States. "Endangered wildlife species, and products made from them, generally may not be imported or exported," the agency said. 

Previous items that customs staff have intercepted and confiscated at Detroit Metro include a cooked pig that a passenger from a West African country had in their checked bag. 

A K-9 assigned to work at Detroit Metro also sniffed out undeclared fruit trees among incoming luggage earlier this year. 

A list of prohibited and restricted items for airline travel into the U.S. can be found on the CBP website.