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For the second time this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized hundreds of pounds of cheese from someone trying to drive a cheese-load into the United States from Mexico.
Federal authorities say not only was this cheese undeclared, but it also was unpasteurized.
See also:
–230 Pounds of Cheese Seized at U.S./Mexico Border
CBP says a man with California plates trying to enter the country through the Lukeville Port of Entry got an additional agriculture inspection and said that he had only five kilograms of Mexican cheese.
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However, the agency’s agriculture specialists discovered “a commercial quantity of undeclared and intentionally concealed cheese,” according to the agency.
Since that’s not how cheese importation works, the driver was fined and released, and the cheese was seized.
It sounds like a situation similar to earlier this year at the border in New Mexico, when a Colorado resident tried to bring back 230 pounds of cheese from Mexico.
CBP said that you can only bring back “personal quantities” of cheese, which has a cut-off of about 10 pounds.
That man was fined $300 and lost all his cheese, which the agency said was destroyed.
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.