Customs acts as screen against potential eco-threats

— -- Laurentine Yanou thought she'd brought home from Cameroon the perfect centerpieces for her daughter's wedding reception . Instead, she learned upon landing at Washington Dulles International Airport that she'd transported a possible threat to the U.S. ecosystem.

Wearing plastic gloves, agricultural specialist Rebecca Rhinehart inspected dozens of bundles of straw that Yanou had stuffed into suitcases. She pointed to dark spots sprinkled throughout. Fungus, Rhinehart said.

"It's got disease on it, and it's got a lot of it," Rhinehart told Yanou on a recent afternoon at Dulles' U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint. Rhinehart seized the straw and sent a crushed Yanou away with four large empty suitcases.

Stepping off a plane and handing over your passport is the easy part of returning to the United States from abroad. Before you can leave the airport, you have to clear U.S. Customs, a place where an ever-changing list of forbidden items can confound officers and travelers alike.

Scenes similar to Yanou's are played out many times daily at airports throughout the nation: Travelers return with seemingly innocuous items, such as mangoes and oranges, and the bizarre, such as guinea pig meat and live birds stuffed in carry-on bags. Many of them could spread avian flu, foot-and-mouth disease, and any number of other illnesses.

Sometimes travelers intentionally smuggle forbidden items. Other times, as in Yanou's case, they don't know their souvenirs are tainted. It's up to Customs and Border Protection officers, agricultural specialists and fish and wildlife experts to sort it out — and keep out anything that could be a threat.

"It's not personal," says Christopher Downing, supervisory Customs and Border Protection officer at Dulles. "When we take their food, it's the protection of our ecosystem. It's not that we don't want you to have it. It's just that we don't have a natural defense for it."

Nobody can be sure of exactly how much plant and animal disease or harmful invasive species enter the country, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the economic damage exceeds $1 billion annually.

What's allowed in and what's forbidden is so complicated that the best advice that officers have for travelers is to err on the side of caution. Declare everything.

Yanou had declared the straw and averted a fine, which generally ranges from $300 to $1,000 for agricultural items. "My daughter will be so disappointed," she says. "I didn't know it was the kind of thing they don't allow. I'm disappointed, but it's fine. It's not going to kill me."

Intercept and quarantine

Last year, Customs intercepted 825,140 agricultural products that had to be quarantined at airports across the nation, says Dianna Bowman, acting deputy executive director of Agricultural Operational Oversight for U.S. Customs.

Of those interceptions, 86,366 were at Los Angeles International Airport. New York's JFK had 85,347, and Miami International had 58,136. The most active airport: San Francisco International, with 113,762 interceptions. Officials at those airports say fruit and meat, especially pork, are the most common forbidden goods. But items vary by flight and region. At Houston Intercontinental Airport, for instance, chicken noodle soup is a common find.

Those might sound harmless. But to the USDA, they are potential carriers of pests and diseases that could seriously damage the country's crops, animals, environment — and ultimately, the economy.

"We're always looking at what type of plant, pest or disease could come basically as hitchhikers," says Alyn Kiel, a USDA spokesman.

Sometimes though, officers find items so bizarre that the inspection area looks as if it's part butcher shop, part zoo. Think goat heads, skinned armadillo, cow legs and porcupine, to name a few.

Officers are also on the lookout for endangered fish and wildlife protected by international treaties and U.S. law.

On a recent morning at Dulles, Kelly French, an inspector for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, laid out items that have been confiscated through the years. They included a sea turtle belt from El Salvador, carved elephant ivory from Zambia, an African dwarf crocodile purse from Nigeria, and sea horses.

The rules are so complicated that it's hard to imagine how the officers get them straight, much less travelers. Some of the items are forbidden from certain countries but not from others. Some are allowed if travelers have the proper certificates. Some may be OK under international law, but not under U.S. law. And the fines can be stiffer: up to $250,000 for individuals, plus jail time.

"Clearly, there's a lot to remember," French says. "You never know what you're going to get from one day to the next."

Almost all agricultural products are incinerated or steam sterilized, another way of destroying them. If it's a protected species of plant, it's turned over to the Agriculture Department and taken into a plant reserve. Any protected fish and wildlife goes into the custody of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Seeing large volume

During the off season for vacation travel, before Memorial Day and after Labor Day, Dulles Airport will have from 3,000 to 6,000 travelers go through Customs each day. On average, 500 pounds of items are destroyed each day. The charred remains are disposed of in large gray bins or small tin garbage cans of the type Oscar the Grouch calls home on Sesame Street.

But not all items make it into the incinerator. "It's impossible to catch every food that goes through," says Yashoda Muruvanda, a Customs agricultural specialist.

Enter Hudson, a beagle who trots around in a vest that says "Protecting American Agriculture."

Within a few minutes, Hudson had sniffed out a bag of sliced apples in one woman's carry-on bag, the remains of a banana in another, and oranges that Italian couple Francesca Bernardi and Carlo Azzarri had stashed in a bag as a snack for their baby. Jennifer Jones, a K9 officer, immediately took the oranges away. "It's OK if they confiscate it," Azzarri said. "The dog already licked it."

No grain, no pain

Tacked onto a bulletin board on one of the X-ray machines at Dulles' agricultural inspection area is a page from the manual of outlawed items. It explains what the officers should do about rice. Once allowed, rice now is prohibited from more than two dozen countries, including India, Syria and Turkey. It's carrying the Khapra beetle, one of the worst invasive species in the world.

The Agricultural Department frequently updates the manuals. Officers, who get more than six months of training before they start, get additional training when new outbreaks emerge. The department looks at all goods and commodities on a case by case, country by country basis.

"Tomatoes coming from Israel are different from tomatoes coming from Japan," Kiel says.

The first line of defense is called the "primary" inspection area at Customs. That's where you hand over your U.S. Customs Declaration form. The Customs and Border Protection officers are trained to ask a few basic questions and study your reaction.

"If they see something unique or they see something out of the ordinary, or if the passenger seems to be evasive or not sure, they'll refer them," Bowman says.

At Dulles, referring them means writing a big A, B or C on their form, like scarlet letters. A, B and C mean Agriculture, Immigration or Customs. Customs is where you pay whatever duty you owe.

When Bernardino Berrios got off his plane from El Salvador, he realized that one of his granddaughters had mangoes in her luggage that he had forgotten to declare. Once he got to primary, he let the officer know. That got him a big A.

Mangoes are complicated. Bring them in whole with the seed in, and they'll get taken away. But remove the seed, cut up the mango, and transport it in a container filled with water, and you'll likely end up taking the tasty treat home. That is, if you add enough water.

Berrios lucked out. His mangoes were properly chopped and doused in water.

Enrique Lopez was not so fortunate. As he stood at the counter in Agriculture after landing from El Salvador, specialist Dennis Torrey asked him what he had in his bag.

Lopez pulled out a container and a plastic bag filled with sliced mangoes submerged in water. Torrey studied the mango closely. His verdict: It didn't have enough water. The mango got thrown into a bucket bound for destruction.

"I love the fruit but if it's not making it, it's not making it," Lopez said.

Not all passengers shrug off confiscations, especially when the items have sentimental value or cultural significance. "Sometimes, you feel bad because they spent hundreds of dollars or their grandmothers made a special meal," specialist Latrice Hill says.

With language barriers an issue, some things also inevitably get lost in translation. One person's definition of a meat might not be another's.

Anastasia Erenko, who arrived at Dulles from Russia, did not declare any meat products when filling out her Customs form. But specialist Leilani Worrell found cooked meat in plastic packaging.

Erenko had thought Worrell was asking her if she had raw meat. "I didn't think this was an issue," she said. "I always thought the meat they want is raw meat."

Erenko had to leave her meat behind but didn't get a fine. "I'm sorry. I'm never going to do it again," she told Worrell, looking relieved. "It's a lesson."

What's allowed, what isn't

The list of food and agricultural products that travelers are allowed to bring into the United States changes depending on the country of origin and disease outbreak of the moment. However, a few items have remained on the forbidden and safe lists.

Items generally allowed but which must be declared:

•Condiments such as oil, vinegar, mustard, jam and honey without honey combs.

•Hand-cured cheeses without meat, such as Parmesan or cheddar.

•Fish or fish products for personal use.

•Bakery goods, candy and chocolate.

•Powdered drinks sealed in their original containers with ingredients listed in English.

•Canned goods and goods in vacuum-packed jars except those that contain meat or poultry.

Items generally not allowed:

•Fresh, chilled, frozen, dried, cured and fully cooked meat from most countries.

•Products containing raw egg from most regions.

•Rice from 26 countries, including India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

•Pork products from Mexico, unless cooked in small amounts for a meal.

•Dried soup mix or bouillon containing animal products.

•Soil.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture