04/16/2010

News / CBP Fines German Traveler $300 for Smuggling Pork

Sterling, Va., - It could have been the makings of a small deli bodega, but to Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists at Washington-Dulles International Airport, the 15 pounds of pork products a passenger attempted to smuggle from Germany on Monday posed a serious concern. So much so that CBP agriculture specialists fined the passenger $300 and destroyed the pork products.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture closely regulates the importation of animal products to protect against the introduction of animal diseases from foreign nations. CBP officers and agriculture specialists are charged with enforcing hundreds of laws and regulations, including USDA food importation regulations.

“Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists take their job of protecting American livestock very seriously. Eradicating highly-contagious animal diseases is a very costly proposition for any nation, particularly one still recovering from a damaging recession,” said Christopher Hess, CBP port director for the Port of Washington, D.C.

The passenger arrived from Frankfurt, Germany on Monday and was referred to a secondary agriculture inspection. He repeatedly denied possessing any agriculture products. CBP agriculture specialists then discovered seven kilograms, a little more than 15 pounds, of various pre-packaged pork products similar to what you could purchase in a grocery deli aisle.

CBP agriculture specialists fined the passenger $300 for failure to declare the meat products and for violating 9CFR94 which regulates the importation of meat into the United States. The pork products were destroyed.

“We too often only consider potential threats to our homeland coming from terrorists or from nefarious criminal enterprises,” said Hess. “Threats to our nation’s agriculture industries pose a crippling domino affect that could be devastating. CBP agriculture specialists serve on our nation’s borders as front-line sentries protecting American agriculture against harmful insects, and plant and animal diseases.”

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/local/04152010.xml

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