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U.S. Homeland Security searches Ethiopian Airlines flight

Posted on , Updated on by Elias Kifle

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Customes and Border Protection
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 from Ethiopia aboard Ethiopian Airways flight 500 on Friday morning, Nov. 14, 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.

Mangoes arriving with a passenger from Ethiopia in Washington, D.C., contain inadmissible insect pests

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.

Contacts For This News Release
Steve Sapp, CBP Public Affairs Officer
Phone: (956) 289-5954
CBP Headquarters, Office of Public Affairs
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Room 3.4A
Washington, DC 20229

5 thoughts on “U.S. Homeland Security searches Ethiopian Airlines flight”

  1. I have always been wondering how Ethiopian Airlines doesnt have some kind of communication channel to aware its travellers updates about rules and regulations. So many people get caught not knowing that they can’t carry things. I will always fly Ethiopian because I don’t want to give my money to any other airlines but when it comes to taking care of its customers, there is so much that airlines needs to do.

  2. It is the woyanes way of accumulating wealth by bypassing the normal trade rules.A close investigation of the culprit would reveal the hands of the ethno-fascist regime.

  3. On my return from visiting my relatives back home 16 years ago one of my cousin made a delicious ‘ye beg wet’and packed it in my suite case underneath my clothes to take it with me to North America. I told her custom’s officials will catch it and discard it. Despite my plea not to take it with me, she still insisted I have to take it. She thought may be the authorities might overlook and let it pass through. My point is, it is not that most people don’t know what to carry with them, but they just take their chances. Surprisingly, I know some people who are lucky enough to make it through customs with injera and wet.

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