Hot Tamale: Smuggled Tamale Intercepted at LAX, What's in a Tamale?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) seized the baggage of a confirmed illegal distributor who tried to smuggle in 450 packs of tamales from Mexico. Anne Maricich, who is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting director for field operations in Los Angeles, explains the detaining policy, "Although tamales are a popular holiday tradition, foreign meat products can carry serious animal diseases."

During the previous year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered a total of 75,330 civil violations. The agency also intercepted a total of 1.6 million animal products, meat and plant/soil quarantine products.

The traveller admitted in the requisite customs form that the baggages contained food. The traveller, however, failed to admit that the food being carried had meat in them.

When the investigating agents found the illegal food packs, the tamales were wrapped in traditional corn husk wrappings.

Tamales are among the most popular mesoamerican foods, with different versions in Mexico, Central America, South America, Carribean, US and the Philippines. Tamales are generally made with corn-based dough cooked in corn husks or similar leaf wrappings and filled with vegetables, meat or even fruits and cheese and quite popularly with chillies. Tamales are seasoned depending on the version of each region and are present in most traditional and family occasions. In the US a number of Tamales festivals take place the year-round. One example is the Hot Tamale Street Fest in Corpus Christi South Texas this November, which will feature a Most Creative Tamale contest and a Hot Tamale Eating Contest.

Health experts say that tamales are rich sources of nutrients and minerals, especially when prepared with a healthy selection of ingredients.

The smuggled tamales seized at the Los Angeles airport were destroyed with the supervision of Customs and Border Protection officers. The adventurous and enterprising tamale carrier was charged with $1,000 civil penalty and was confirmed to have intent to distribute.