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By MRCTV, Special for USDR
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at Laredo Port of entry stung a honey bee smuggling operation, seizing a cache of undeclared live queen and worker honey bees from a group of travelers in a pickup truck. The bust of undocumented alien bees is unprecedented, Port Director Joseph Misenhelter says:
“This interception of multiple colonies of live honey bees is an unusual discovery, something not seen in recent memory and reflects the commitment of our well-trained agriculture specialists to uphold CBP’s agriculture mission and prevent the import of foreign insects without appropriate permits.”
The illegal workers did not have the required permits; neither did their queen: “CBP agriculture specialists detained the live bees as it is prohibited to import live insects without the proper import permits.”
A shortage of bees to needed to work on U.S. farms has, apparently, increased demand for undocumented bees: “The number of managed honey bee colonies has been in steady decline. In 70 years, the U.S. honeybee colony population has decreased from 4 million in 1947 to 2.5 million today; Bees of all types (wild and managed) play a crucial role in the farming industry in that bee pollination adds $15 billion worth of crop value each year and enables the production of 90 commercially grown crops in the U.S.”
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