World | butter Norway Busts Butter Smugglers Bootlegged butter selling for $40 a packet By Rob Quinn Posted Dec 20, 2011 5:00 AM CST Copied People line up for Danish butter on a street in Oslo. (AP Photo/Berit Roald, Scanpix Norway) Norwegian authorities are cracking down on Swedes churning cash out of Norway's butter shortage. Enterprising bootleggers have been selling cross-border butter to Norwegians desperate to do their Christmas baking. The going rate? More than $40 per packet, the Telegraph reports. Two men with more than 500 pounds of butter in their van were busted by a police patrol after they had made just one delivery. While some Swedes are cashing in, the Danes—long irked by Norwegian butter import tariffs of $2 a pound—are gleefully offering charity to their oil-rich neighbors: A Danish morning show handed out packets of butter on the streets of Oslo. Authorities at Norway's butter monopoly blame the shortage on bad weather and the popularity of a high-fat, Atkins-style diet, but the nation's angry and butter-less citizens accuse the monopoly of being arrogant and incompetent. Read These Next New Fox star, 23, misses first day after car troubles. Man accused of killing his daughters might be dead. White House rolls with Trump's 'daddy' nickname. Supreme Court ruling is a big blow to Planned Parenthood. Report an error