Smugglers will try just about anything to get their drugs into the United States. Often, that means concealing their contraband inside other items. Often those items are food.
Case in point: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers recently found 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine in a shipment of cabbage that they stopped in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
According to a press release, CBP officers at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility found $25,167,000 worth of suspected methamphetamine hidden in a shipment that should have been nothing more than cilantro, tomatillo, and cabbage.
CBP agents stopped a tractor-trailer coming from Reynosa, Mexico, at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility on September 8. The officers sent the vehicle for a secondary inspection, which included a canine team screening and a non-intrusive scan. Officers found 1,164 packages of suspected methamphetamine totaling 2,815.30 pounds hidden within the shipment after a physical examination of the vehicle.
The DEA’s Houston division shared online a video of the tainted vegetables, which the agency’s office in the border town of McAllen, Texas, had confiscated.
“Our CBP officers’ skills and expertise continue to be on display as they take down another massive shipment of dangerous, illicit narcotics,” said Port Director Carlos Rodriguez, Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas Port of Entry.
Cilantro, tomatillo, and cabbage are just the latest foods smugglers have tried to use
In March of this year, authorities in Texas thwarted another attempt at drug smuggling, which involved yet another type of food: blackberries. A tractor-trailer also transported that shipment, which also originated in Reynosa, Mexico.
CBP officers found a total of 862 packages of suspected methamphetamine weighing 1,984.16 pounds hidden within the blackberries. The estimated total street value of the narcotics was $17,737,200.
Smugglers have also been caught trying to bring drugs into the United States using broccoli, squash, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, jalapenos, turnips, and limes. Those seizures resulted in the confiscation of over $140 million worth of narcotics.