Border Agents Have Beef With Smuggled Meat By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department has a major beef with 845 pounds of bologna that a Mexican immigrant tried to smuggle into the country.
Border agents found the pork-based meat in suitcases on a bus stopped April 4 at a checkpoint north of Las Cruces, N.M.
Though the U.S. Agriculture Department has approved some Mexican bologna imports, the meat nabbed in New Mexico was not refrigerated and was vulnerable to health risks such as Classic Swine Fever, officials said Monday.
Agriculture specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection destroyed the bologna. The agency is part of the Homeland Security Department.
A 30-year-old Mexican man claimed the bologna, which was packaged in more than 80 rolls and headed for sale at a swap meet or flea market, CBP spokeswoman Sue Challis said.
The man's name is not being released because he is not being charged, Challis said. The man entered the country legally.
The bologna rolls cost about $7 or $8 in Mexico but can be sold in the United States for four times as much, Challis said.
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Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/
How did he get 845 pounds of stink meat across the border? Methinks he bribed a customs inspector.