Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Warns Against Chinese Seeds

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has observed a new string of events in the United States involving unsolicited packages coming from China to US citizens. These packages contain seeds of unknown plants, and are often falsely labeled, many times indicating “jewelry” as the contents. We have had reports of such packages already arriving in our local community.

According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, these packages of unknown seeds “...could contain harmful invasive species or be otherwise unsafe.” People are urged to take this matter seriously because if planted or not destroyed- these seeds could grow into species of plants that could destroy Texas agriculture, introduce disease to native plants and may be harmful to livestock.

If you receive unsolicited packages of seeds such as these, please keep the contents in their original sealed package. You are urged to report these packages to SITC.Mail@aphis.usda.gov or you can go directly to the Texas Department of Agriculture website here http://ow.ly/Dlcy50AJjlr
Please do not simply discard these seeds in the trash as they could end up in landfills and potentially grow, and do not flush them down sewer/drains for the same reasons.