CBP officers make a spicy discovery

HIDALGO - Maybe a Mission woman wanted customs agents to believe she had a very big baby.

A 21-year-old woman tried to smuggle nearly five and a half pounds of chorizo concealed in several baby diapers insider her SUV at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge just before midnight Friday, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

An officer at the checkpoint saw a pile of diapers inside the woman's 2005 Ford Expedition and ordered her into secondary inspection for a closer look.

The woman told them her baby had soiled the diapers, officers said.

But after the inspectors tore into the folded diapers to check out what was inside, the brown Mexican pork sausage was out of the bag.

"You would be surprised what people carry in their vehicles," said Felix Garza, a local U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

Border crossers frequently try to illegally bring across fresh foods such as pork, chicken, eggs and avocados that can create problems for U.S. agricultural production, Garza said.

The woman was fined $300 and released. The officers seized the chorizo.

"Some claim ignorance," Garza said of food smugglers. "And some say, ‘It's hidden. You caught me.'"

Friday's spicy discovery wasn't the first time someone tried to smuggle contraband inside a infant's underpants.

In May, officers at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge seized $10,000 stuffed in an 15-month-old's diaper.

"But chorizo in a diaper? That's new to us," Garza said.

And with regular reports illegal drug or cash seizures at border checkpoints, could these chorizo-filled diapers be one of the more outlandish smuggling attempts agents have encountered?

"For now, I think it is," Garza said.
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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.