Police Confiscate 400 Kilos of Cheese

Police in the northwestern province of Guanacaste recently confiscated a 400-kilogram load of cheese from a Nicaraguan citizen who allegedly tried to bring it into the country illegally.

The lactate cargo was intercepted when police stopped a Toyota pick-up truck at a checkpoint in the border community of Santa Cecilia, Guanacaste, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security.

Upon being questioned by police, the truck’s driver said the cheese was transported through the mountains near Costa Rica’s northern border and that he planned to take it to Liberia, Guanacaste, to sell it in bulk, according to the statement.

Police suspect the driver somehow snuck through the Public Health Ministry’s checkpoint at the northern border crossing of Peñas Blancas, on the Inter-American Highway. Luckily, police caught him before he sold the alleged contraband cheese, because it did not meet minimum standards set by the Health Ministry, according to the statement.

After being confiscated May 30 the cheese was sent to a Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock warehouse in Peñas Blancas to be destroyed, said Public Security Ministry spokesman Fabián Meza.

Meza could not specify the type of cheese that was confiscated, but he said it was a “hard cheese.”