re: Is It Possible to Bring Cuban Cigars Into The US in Your Luggage?

I was a kid, on my senior cruise. Visited El Morro and there were these big lizards running around standing up on their back legs. Spent half the day trying to catch one, then finally caught a couple. Brought the biggest one onto the ship and kept it in the ice bucket with a towel over the top and a belt wrapped around the bucket to hold the towel on. On the last day when I was at breakfast, the cabin steward opened the bucket and it jumped out. Guy freaked out. When I got back to the room there were ship officials and customs officers in the room. I denied everything amd said someone must have pranked us. When they finally left the room, I found the lizard under the bed. Put him in the camera case and hid out until we disembarked from the ship.

On the flight to Miami, our school made us all wear suits, but on the flight home they let us wear anything. Everyone else was in shorts and t-shirts, but I was the only guy in a suit because I had the camera case hidden in a pocket on the inside of my coat. One of my teachers found out when we got back to New Orleans and said it would have been a $10,000 fine if I got caught smuggling a live animal.