Dylan Bettencourt
An Indonesian tourist was fined R33,000 for arriving in Australia with two McMuffins and a ham croissant in their backpack.
The McDonald’s meal that ended up costing the tourist a fortune was detected by a sniffer dog at Darwin Airport, officials confirmed.
“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has,” said Australian agriculture minister Murray Watt.
The fine given to the tourist could pay for exactly 567 sausage and egg McMuffins in Sydney or more than 1,000 Big Mac burgers in South Africa.
Australia implemented hyper-stringent biosecurity laws in an attempt to protect the country’s agriculture industry from imported pests and diseases.
Authorities are on high alert due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease from Indonesia.
Foot and mouth disease doesn’t pose much of a health risk to humans but it is a major risk for livestock.
All meat imports from the country have to undergo a scanning process before being allowed into Australia.
It remains unclear why the tourist attempted to smuggle the McDonald’s meal into Australia.
Airport staff members have also remained suspiciously quiet about where the confiscated meal ended up.
Image source: @LiveStrong
