Border Agents Stop Bologna From Being Smuggled Into the U.S.
March 11, 2022 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found 230 pounds of pork sausage that people tried to smuggle into the United States last month at border crossings in Texas.
Agents made two more bologna seizures in January, according to CBP. In one such case, a driver told authorities that he was selling sausage in the U.S. for almost twice as much as in Mexico. News release.
Customs and Border Protection and USDA work together to prevent pests and diseases from entering the country at ports of entry.
“People sometimes take these seizures lightly, but there is nothing funny about these failed smuggling attempts,” said Hector Mancha, director of CBP field operations in El Paso. news release issued on Monday. “Importing unregulated pork products could introduce foreign animal diseases that could harm our country’s agriculture.”
The U.S. citizen in the vehicle “gave a negative agricultural declaration,” but further inspection revealed pork sausage rolls hidden in the car.
The driver said that a friend paid him to bring the meat. A 59-year-old U.S. citizen, the driver, also gave a negative farming declaration.
CBP imposed civil sanctions for non-declaring commercial quantities of bologna sausage. The CBP destroyed the meat due to USDA regulations.
CBP said that the news comes after CBP agents confiscated 243 pounds of pork sausage in two unrelated incidents in January at the Paso Del Norte and Ysleta border crossings in Texas.
