Passenger slapped with $1.8k fine for undeclared McDonald’s meal

A passenger traveling from Bali, Indonesia to northern Australia has been fined $1,874 after a police dog sniffed his bag and found two McMuffins and a ham croissant.

The passenger, whose identity has not been revealed, had not declared the McDonald’s breakfast order before arriving at Darwin Airport in the country’s Northern Territory last week.

“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger has ever had,” Australian Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Murray Watt said on Monday.

“This fine is double the cost of a plane ticket to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be taken,” he added.

The pup named Zinta who grabbed the hungry passenger was specially trained as part of the Australian government’s recent crackdown on imported food.

Australia has eradicated foot-and-mouth disease and wants to ensure it is not brought back into the country through undeclared meat products, its government has said.

“Australia is FMD free and we want it to stay that way,” Watt added of the Darwin airport passenger fine. “Zinta has been placed at Darwin Airport as part of the Albanian government’s new biosecurity defenses, and it’s great to see that she is already helping to keep the country safe.”

The government has committed nearly $10 million to pursue prosecution of illegal imports and stop the spread of disease. The airports there now have sanitary floor mats.

Australian officials are now particularly concerned about flights from Indonesia, where cattle are currently experiencing an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, according to CNN. Experts say an outbreak below could cost the country’s economy $80 billion.