A San Ysidro man who allegedly tried to smuggle 14 live toucans across the border while the birds were hidden inside his car has been charged by San Diego federal prosecutors.
After an alert from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection canine at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, CBP officers allegedly spotted a bird wrapped in cloth and duct-taped to the underside of the dash of Carlos Abundez’s Volkswagen Passat.
A subsequent inspection of the car revealed 14 sedated juvenile Keel-billed toucans inside a side panel of the car’s dashboard, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office…