Julio Iglesias 42 kg fresh food found in luggage at airport...?? (country, house)

[Nerys52SoSilver]

Doing housekeeping this morning and watching TVE spanish tv , segment came up of Julio Iglesias travel private plane from Bahamas to Dominican Republic and at Punta Cana airport luggage check show 42 kg fresh food, raw chicken, fruits, vegetables etc.
I looked up online some more information this mostly is in spanish.
Somewhere the health minister mention travel food rules apply to everyone.

Why? How? Is there fresh food shortages in D.R. ?

[Nerys52SoSilver]

https://youtube.com/shorts/SJeC09Lus...HKQ3WYub7FsoCs

[Nerys52SoSilver]

Link shows the foods.

[Labonte18]

Invasive disease, pests and the like. The US and most every other country has similar rules.

Pretty sure you can't bring beef from the UK into the US to this day.. Mad cow disease.

California even has a law in parts of the state that if you have an orange tree in your yard, it's illegal to transport the fruit.

If you watch any of the "Customs" shows on TV.. I think the BBC and Canada TV did one following their border agents.. Almost all of them will have a show where someone is bringing luggage with lots of fruit, vegetables or meats through and it winds up being seized and destroyed.

You know it's illegal to bring Haggis to the US? Has been since 1971.

[Parnassia]

As others have already mentioned, uncooked raw foods are disease and agricultural pest vectors. Plus, raw seeds and roots may be viable. Once they're discarded, they could sprout and end up establishing invasive new plants in an area they don't belong.

As for why he tried to transport all that food to the DR of course we can only speculate. You'd think such an experienced traveler would know better but maybe he leaves all those annoying details to his staff or he expects celebrity treatment and officials turning a blind eye.

I'll stick my neck out and suggest that he's a bit paranoid and insists on knowing the origin of everything destined to go in his mouth so he travels with his own food bought from a trusted source. Not much different than shipping valuable livestock. Championship animals often travel with familiar, high quality feed from home. He might feel buying anything fresh in the DR would put him at risk of illness. It's also possible it was due to something ethical/environmental...only eating certified organic produce/humanely produced meats.