CBP Conducts Agriculture Operation on Ethiopian Airways Flight; Discovers Insect Pests, Inadmissible Fruit, Plants, Meat

(Friday, November 14, 2008) 

contacts for this news release 

Sterling, Va. – One of Customs and Border Protection’s primary missions is enforcing America’s agriculture regulations and that fact was made apparent to all 125 passengers aboard Ethiopian Airways flight 500 this morning at Dulles International Airport. 

Dubbed Operation Addis, CBP agriculture specialists referred all of flight 500’s passengers for inspection. The inspection resulted in 12 seizures—seven meat seizures of dried beef and pork weighing a combined 40 pounds, and five plant seizures that included mangoes, bananas, oranges, apples, fresh peppers, garden eggs and fresh leaves. 

 While cutting up the mangoes, CBP agriculture specialists discovered two insect pests, an adult Coleoptera (beetle) and an immature Coleoptera.

“Introducing non-indigenous insect species, even if accidental, may have severe consequences on our nation’s vital crops, our farming industry and our economy,” said Christopher Hess, CBP port director for the Port of Washington. “Protecting America’s agriculture is an important mission, one that our agriculture specialists take very seriously.”

CBP conducts random inspection operations on flights arriving from various nations in an effort to intercept high-risk agriculture products.

International travelers should be aware of the rules for bringing items into the country. CBP consolidates travel information on its Travel Web site. ( Travel )

“Travelers need to be aware of what items they can and can’t bring to America, and our CBP Travel Web site is a great resource to assist them,” said Hess.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.