A passenger arrived from Mexico on Nov. 2 and was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists, who found 450 pork tamales wrapped in plastic bags in the passenger’s luggage. S/he apparently denied that the tamales were made with pork, which is on the list of products that travelers may not bring into the country under customs regulations.
The passenger would have been in the clear had he tried to bring sweet tamales – or those all masa ones that always seem to be left over. But bringing pork from another country into the United States carries potentially serious health risks, according to Customs and Border Protection.
“Although tamales are a popular holiday tradition, foreign meat products can carry serious animal diseases from countries affected by outbreaks of Avian influenza, mad cow and swine fever,” an agency’s acting field operations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.