The border debate is running wild this year and for the most part I personally feel that it is an important issue. I try to not focus on my own thoughts though but I do think that customs officials might be focusing on the odd things a bit more than the important things when they start taking bologna away from people returning from Mexico.
Yet at the same time I think that you will have a difficult time claiming that this amount of cold-cut meat is meant for personal use.
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I wouldn't say that this woman is a smuggling mastermind either though. She was driving an absolutely huge vehicle, a GMC Yukon, yet was traveling alone and claimed on her customs form that she had only a "cooked meal" as part of her customs declaration. Now at an airport with a carry on bag I can see someone getting away with this but when you are driving what I consider to be a "road yacht" and claim to have nothing of value in the car at all, this seems like it would be grounds for suspicion on its own.
To make matters worse for the lady, the bologna isn't all that she had with her as they also discovered a bunch of pharmaceuticals that are considered prescription-only in the USA. I have my own opinions about that particular part of the USA system as well but I will keep them to myself. Again, she could have gotten away with saying that this was for personal use, but there was so much of it.
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I guess there are a lot of people out there that took the relatively funny movie "We're the Millers" a bit to literally and just assume that because they are a middle-aged USA woman that customs is just going to give you a pass and send you on through.
Of course the media jumped all over this and it is kind of funny to see organizations like the NY Post, CNN, and ABC attempt to cover this story seriously. Whenever I see the words "illegal bologna" I can't help but chuckle a little bit. I'm not a food expert, but I also think that the claim that "Mexican bologna threatens to contaminate America's pork industry" is a bunch of bullshit that was probably paid for by the American pork industry. I mean, like how would it threaten it other than being the same thing but cheaper?
To all potential bologna smugglers out there, I would highly suggest that you have a more compact vehicle if you are going to attempt this and maybe don't try to do 700 lbs all at once. I'd imagine that she did smaller runs in the past and always got away with it and just kept pushing the limits over time. I don't think it should be illegal to go over the border to purchase goods for personal use at a lower price though and who are we to say that this woman isn't putting that in a freezer for the next couple of years? I know people that do exactly that with things like beef.
