What New York airport is doing with seized prohibited items and products. VIDEO

About 43 international travelers fly into New York's John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) every day. In terms of passenger traffic, this airport is the largest entry point into the United States. About 000 pieces of luggage pass through Terminal 4 alone per hour. These bags and suitcases contain a huge number of things, objects and products that cannot be imported into America, including 1000 kilograms of food daily. What happens to confiscated goods?

Photo: video frame YouTube / Business Insider

Business Insider tells how at the JFK airport they find and destroy what is forbidden to import into the United States.

If you flew to the New York airport in the 90's, you well know that transporting anything to America was much easier. But after the tragedy of 11 of September 2001, the question arose sharply: how to protect the country from dangerous people, substances and products.

So the US Customs and Border Control Service (CBP) was created in the form in which it is known today.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Business Insider

Typically, two types of CBP employees can be seen at the airport: officers like Steve (right in the photo) and agricultural specialists like Ginger (left).

Photo: video frame YouTube / Business Insider

Their job is to detect, confiscate, and destroy millions of prohibited items and products per year that are not allowed to be imported into the United States. This is a difficult and big job, which sometimes requires the participation of a four-legged partner.

Steve Robinson introduces his partner: this is Spike, the 8-year-old Belgian Shepherd Malinois. The officer coached Spike from the first days of the puppy's life. The dog is specially trained to search for drugs. Over their overall career, the shepherd has discovered over 400 of various prohibited substances that have been confiscated.

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CBP officers like Steve identify potentially dangerous people trying to enter the United States, as well as find drugs and weapons. And because the stakes are so high, dogs like Spike are trained in a special way: it's called "passive response." When a dog smells drugs, it does not scratch, growl, bark, or attract attention to itself. She just sits down. And if the animal is not mistaken, it is given a reward.

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“His reward is a toy, he loves to play,” Steve says, tossing the shepherd his favorite thing. “Just recently, he and I discovered and seized 16 packets of ecstasy.”

Seized drugs are confiscated and burned. The place where this happens is kept in the strictest confidence for reasons of national security.

Everyone knows very well that you can’t bring drugs to the USA. But more often than not prohibited substances are seized at JFK.

The most common “forbidden thing” is food. When a regular traveler comes to the United States, they must declare any food they bring in or risk paying a $1000 fine for the first violation of this requirement.

On the subject: What products can not be imported into the United States

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Food is not confiscated because security officers want to eat your Spanish jamon or Caribbean mangoes. This is because their mission is to protect America's agriculture from any foreign pests or diseases that may affect U.S. livestock or crops. That's where ag experts like Ginger Perron step in.

“Everything is destroyed to protect against possible risks,” says the expert. — We protect the agricultural interests of the country. We protect ourselves from bioterrorism, in which case someone might deliberately bring a dangerous product to wreak havoc in America.”

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Previously, this kind of chaos was already created by insects brought in luggage from other countries. Florida oranges and grapefruit producers lost 2,9 million dollars between 2007 and 2014 due to Asian citrus psilide imported into the country. And the Asian barbel that appeared in America in the 90's destroyed a lot of deciduous trees.

The irradiation of foreign insects during the period from 1997 to 2010 years cost the United States 373 million dollars.

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Says agricultural specialist James Armstrong:

“In the US, we go to the grocery store and there is always food there. We don't have to look for it or check to see if the food is contaminated with some disease. The food always looks great and we were a little spoiled. We don't really fully understand how important it is to protect all of this."

Therefore, it is extremely important to find, confiscate and destroy every orange imported into the country.

But with 34 million foreign passengers flying into the country every year, it may seem impossible to check every bag. For people - yes. But, as in the case of drug searches, officers have assistants. They are called the Beagle Brigade.

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This four-legged officer is Biscuit. Like Spike, he is trained to "passive response". But this dog was trained to recognize food.

“They learn by starting with five key smells,” says agricultural product specialist Sal DiSpigna. “Over time, their skills expand, and these dogs retire often knowing about 150 smells.”

And Biscuit does a great job. The Beagle Brigade provides 90% of correct “answers”.

“It’s incredible to see your dog sit up in passive response for three grapes in a hard-sided suitcase,” admits the expert.

On the subject: What foods can be imported to the USA for personal consumption?

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Scientists say that dog noses are 1000 times more sensitive than human noses. And in the service at JFK, animals prove it every day.

Once Biscuit smells the product, the passenger's bags go to Ginger. She looks at them through the X-ray scanner and checks the luggage. The officer opens the suitcases and inspects each one manually. If she finds something prohibited, Ginger confiscates it and places it in temporary storage. For example, today she confiscated wet grape leaves rolled into tubes and raw horse meat sausages. All this is not uncommon. Very often, according to the specialist, people bring plants and seedlings that they intend to plant in America. These products were found in the bags of two families from the same flight.

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There are two ways to get rid of smuggled food: a chopper and an incinerator. Ginger puts the food in separate containers and makes notes about where the illicit food will go.

In a separate room, food finds its final refuge. The chopper is used for fruits, vegetables and similar plant products. The car is called the "Muffin Monster". But before Ginger puts it in, she cuts, squeezes and examines the fruit or vegetable. She looks for signs of disease, where insects enter or where larvae emerge. If she finds even a tiny bug, she neutralizes the risk of infestation and sends the insect to the US Department of Agriculture for further investigation.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Business Insider

Back to the Muffin Monster. Every day he grinds 54-55 kilograms of food - all of it brought by international passengers. Avocados, mangoes, and citrus fruits are among the most common fruits that will end up in the shredder.

“I love to eat, I'm a big food fan just like the next person. But I understand how important it is to seize, confiscate and destroy these products to avoid the risk of contamination.”

Photo: video frame YouTube / Business Insider

Therefore, the next time you decide to put an orange in your luggage, declare it and allow specialists such as Ginger to decide whether you can import it.

But leave the Spanish jamon in Spain - Biscuit will still find it.

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