Thread: Mexican smuggler with 88 pounds (40-kg) of cheese

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlene ... ml&src=rss

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - Puzzled U.S. border police arrested a Mexican smuggler with 88 pounds (40-kg) of cheese hidden in a special compartment in his truck, police said on Friday.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Roger Maier said officers at the port of entry in Columbus, New Mexico, referred a Chevrolet pickup for a routine secondary examination on Wednesday.

Officers using an X-ray machine saw the outline of 16 bulky packages stashed in a secret compartment behind the seat, which they initially believed were packets containing illicit drugs.

"Generally if you see something (with the X-ray machine) you expect it to be narcotics, but this turned out to be cheese," Maier told Reuters by telephone.



Officers regularly impound drugs including marijuana, heroin and cocaine at border crossings from Mexico, although Maier said the smuggled cheese haul was unusual.

"It looks like it was destined for people who wanted a taste of the old country," he added.

Police arrested the 38-year-old driver, seized the cheese and confiscated the truck because he failed to declare his cargo.

In 2003, border police in the area impounded nearly 800 pounds (360 kg) of bologna as it was being smuggled across the border from Mexico.



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If you have run into members of the amnesty lobby much you will have heard the NAFTA corn impact excuse for illegal immigration. After NAFTA subsidized American yellow corn entered the Mexican market. That much is true the next part of the excuse is that as a result Mexican farmers were put out of business. That is a gross over simplification, first Mexicans do not usually eat yellow corn they prefer white corn and yellow corn is fed to livestock particularly cattle. When American yellow corn entered the Mexican market it impacted Mexican industrial scale yellow corn farmers who switched over to white corn. For decades Mexican peasant farmers had sold their white corn to the National Grain Board which in turn sold it to industrial mills that produce dough or finished tortillas. The village farmers could not compete with industrial farms in selling to industrial mills. But the industrial mills are not the only potential market for grain. What the village farmers should have done is use the white corn they were producing to produce value added food products and raised small livestock like poultry. Instead because it was so easy to come to the United States the farm families sent members up here.