A man from Indonesia doesn't want to do without his McDonald's travel snack and "smuggles" it onto the plane without further ado. During customs control at the Australian airport, a sniffer dog discovers the treats. Now the man has to pay a hefty fine.
A man from Indonesia has to pay a fine of more than 1,800 euros for a travel snack he brought to Australia. The man owes the Australian government the amount as a fine because a sniffer dog discovered two McMuffin burgers and a ham croissant from the McDonald's fast food chain in the man's backpack during a customs check at Darwin Airport.
"This will be the most expensive McDonald's meal of his life," said Australia's Agriculture Minister Murray Watt. The A$2,664 fine is equivalent to the price of 567 McMuffin burgers in Sydney or several return tickets to the Indonesian island of Bali.
The background to the hefty penalty is the generally strict biosecurity laws in Australia, which are intended to protect agriculture in the country from pests and diseases that have been introduced. After an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia, the responsible Australian authorities are also on increased alert for travelers from this country. The viral disease is harmless to humans, but is highly contagious among livestock and has serious consequences for them.
