EL PASO, Texas — Customs officials have seized pickled pork skins hidden in a container of coffee creamer that a Colorado man was attempting to smuggle across the border into West Texas.
The 37-year-old man was fined $300 for the three kilograms of raw pig rind, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Roger Maier said Thursday.
Pickled pork skins are banned because they have the potential to introduce “foreign animal diseases to the U.S. pork industry,” El Paso Port Director Hector Mancha said.
The seizure was made at the Paso Del Norte international crossing in downtown El Paso Saturday after the man told customs officials that he didn’t have anything from Mexico to declare. An x-ray examination of his bags revealed the pork.
Fried pork skins are allowed, Maier said.
