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Agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) never know what they are going to see each day when they go to work. That being said, there is one thing they will have a pretty good chance of seeing on any give day: someone trying to smuggle drugs into America.
It probably won’t be just any run-of-the-mill smuggling effort either. These days, drug smugglers have shown they will try just about anything to conceal their illicit shipments.
Case in point: What happened last week when Customs and Border Protection officers at the Calexico Commercial Facility in California had an encounter with a a 63-year-old male driving a commercial tractor-trailer.
The driver, a valid border crossing cardholder, was supposed to be carrying a shipment of green onions, according to the truck’s manifest.
Unfortunately for him, when a CBP officer referred his vehicle for further inspection they discovered he was hauling more than vegetables.
In the secondary inspection area, a CBP K-9 unit screened the shipment and alerted them to the presence of narcotics hidden somewhere among the onions.
When CBP officers conducted a physical examination of the tractor-trailer’s floor, they discovered 608 packages containing what tests would later show was methamphetamine weighing a total of 646.61 pounds with an estimated street value of $775,000.
US Customs and Border Protection
“This is truly an outstanding demonstration of our officer’s ability to think outside of the box and further exemplifies our adaptability to find illicit contraband no matter where narcotics are hidden,” said Roque Caza, Port Director for the Area Port of Calexico.
Coconuts, celery, lettuce, cucumbers and bell peppers, watermelons, squash, tomatillos, and now onions.
There really is no limit to what smugglers will try when it comes to attempting to get their drugs into the United States.
Loaded from the spare to the wall!
On Oct. 9, @CBP officers at the #AndradePOE caught a driver trying pull a fast one, hiding 67 pkgs. in the truck bed walls and spare tire of the vehicle. A clean sweep of the 🚙 resulted in the seizure of 154 lbs. of meth. Outstanding! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/gRGpKwsI7Z— Director of Field Operations Sidney Aki (@DFOSanDiegoCA) October 11, 2024
Yesterday, @CBP officers apprehended a trusted traveler at the #SYSPOE SENTRI lanes attempting to smuggle 51 lbs. of meth in the spare tire wheel well of the vehicle. While SENTRI expedites the travel process for low-risk individuals, it does not exempt them from inspection 👀 pic.twitter.com/uAxKBpWzYy
— Director of Field Operations Sidney Aki (@DFOSanDiegoCA) October 12, 2024