I just got a $1,000 fine for not reporting produce when coming back to the US and I had no idea that was a thing.

I recently went to South America for two weeks and the last leg of my journey was Colombia. I bought a big bottle of what was essentially Colombia's version of pisco sour, made with passion fruit. Since I had a layover before my final leg home, I decided to drink the liquor at the airport, figuring I'd rather drink it than throw it out. <br><br>When I got to my final airport, I had about 1/4 of the bottle left and so I drank the rest of it before walking towards security. About freakin' 20 minutes later, I got called aside at customs and they said I owed a $1,000 fine for not declaring food and alcohol. To make a long story short, they let me off with a $170 fine, but I was not told by anyone about the produce policy. <br><br>Also, I literally didn't have any produce left. So that's my story. Please familiarize yourself with this policy if you plan on drinking anything with real fruit in it abroad. This totally would have been avoided if the airline had told me about this policy.<br><br>Edit: the liquor was mixed with passion fruit juice and pulp, but I did not have any left when I was stopped.<br><br>Edit #2: the title previously said $300 fine but I decided to include the $70 tax I had to pay. Still, this is outrageous.