American fined after 9kg Mercadona meat haul found in airport luggage

Nearly nine kilograms of chorizo, cured pork and venison sausage may seem like the perfect souvenir to take back home from a Mercadona in Spain, but customs officers in the US did not agree. The haul cost the traveller a 500-dollar fine, his confiscated meat and, on his second offence, his Global Entry fast-track pass for good. 

Chorizo, lomo and venison sausage filled his suitcase

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the traveller, a member of the Global Entry trusted-traveller scheme, arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport carrying 8.44kg of pork and 0.4kg of venison sausage tucked into his luggage, almost nine kilograms of meat in total.

The haul included chorizo, salpicão, cured pork loin, fuet and linguiça, a mix of cured meats that are staples from Spain and Portugal. According to reports, most of it had been bought at a Mercadona supermarket during a trip to Spain.

None of it was declared on arrival

CBP said the traveller did not declare any of the meat, despite the forms and signage at US airports asking passengers to list any food, plant or animal products before they reach the border. Agriculture specialists who searched the luggage found the sausages and cured pork undeclared and confiscated the lot.

The agency said its officers enforce US Department of Agriculture quarantine rules designed to keep pests and diseases, including African swine fever, out of the country’s farms. Spain reported its own outbreak of the disease in wild boar near Barcelona in November 2025, prompting several countries, including the UK, to briefly halt some Spanish pork imports.

A second offence that cost him for good

This was not the traveller’s first brush with US customs over undeclared food. CBP said it was his second such offence, and that this time the consequences were more severe: the agency confirmed his Global Entry membership had been permanently revoked.

He was also fined 500 dollars (around €431). CBP said fines for bringing in undeclared agricultural products can run as high as 1,000 dollars (about €861), and repeat offenders lose the fast-track privileges Global Entry is built around, including skipping the queues at immigration and customs.

What it means for travellers flying out of Spain

Global Entry lets pre-approved travellers use automated kiosks to clear US customs and immigration more quickly, a perk especially popular with frequent flyers between Spain and the US. Losing it means going back to the ordinary queue every time, however many times someone has used the fast lane before.

For anyone flying to the US with Spanish jamón, chorizo or other cured meats in their case, the message from CBP is to always declare it. Officers can allow some shelf-stable, fully cured products through once they are declared and inspected, but undeclared meat is confiscated on the spot, and a second offence can be far costlier than the shopping itself.

Meat rules have tightened closer to home too. The UK now applies its own post-Brexit checks on meat and dairy brought in from Spain and the rest of the EU, though nothing quite as strict as the US approach. Whichever border travellers are crossing with a suitcase of Spanish produce, the safest option to not lose the Mercadona delicacies is to declare what’s in the bag.