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By MAGGIE L. LAWSON
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Customs agents have confiscated more than 200 pounds of khat, an illegal drug with amphetamine-like properties, in three recent seizures at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Gary Gaither, a Loudoun County investigator assigned to customs, said two of three smugglers used identical suitcases that had been shipped from London.
Khat, pronounced “kot,” grows in East Africa and southern Arabia, where it has long been popular for recreational and medical purposes, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Users get high from chewing the ’ fresh leaves or twigs from the khat plant, a flowering evergreen shrub.
Because khat loses much of its potency after 48 hours, it is shipped in by air for immediate use, said customs officials.
“The drug comes in mainly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday when the East Africans use it,” said Gaither. He said khat is being distributed in Northern Virginia, including Arlington and Alexandria, mostly among populations with East African roots.
The narcotic is widely used in Somalia, and some customs officials said refugees from that country, which has been involved in a civil war, may have brought their drug habit with them when they came to the United States.
“We haven’t found Americans using it,” Gaither said.
Customs officials at Dulles said they first encountered khat Jan. 6, when a drug-detection dog alerted them to the substance.
They opened a suitcase and found it full of what appeared to be twigs, wrapped in banana leaves.
Some 92 pounds of khat were confiscated, and Paul William Golds
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