by Allan Wall
Smugglers are creative, constantly finding new ways to sneak methamphetamine across the border.
Sometimes smugglers get caught but how much is getting through?
A couple of recent cases at the Otay Mesa crossing (near San Diego) included celery and fake watermelons.
From CBS News:
“[O]n the evening of August 9… border agents at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility, an inspection port just over the southern border in San Diego, found 629 pounds of methamphetamine in a grocery shipping crate filled with celery. Border Patrol said that agents discovered the narcotics while performing an inspection on a commercial tractor-trailer, driven by a 34-year-old man with a legitimate border crossing card who entered the U.S. from Mexico with cargo on board his truck. The driver was transporting a shipment that had been declared as celery, according to the federal authorities. Agents used a K-9 unit to do the inspection, which revealed 508 packages that testing later confirmed contained methamphetamine. Border Patrol said the haul had an estimated street value of $755,000.“
After that, the fake watermelons. From CBS: “Less than two weeks after the celery seizure, agents at the same inspection facility in Otay Mesa discovered an even larger haul of methamphetamine. This time, the produce meant to conceal the drugs was fake. Another commercial tractor-trailer, driven by a 29-year-old man said to be transporting watermelons from Mexico into the U.S., was found to contain 1,220 packages of methampetamine, according to the Border Patrol. The drugs were wrapped inside packaging that might be mistaken for watermelon from a distance. But closer inspection revealed the packages were actually filled with 4,587 pounds of meth, a haul with a street value exceeding $5 million, according to the agency.“
Close-up of a fake watermelon:
The CBS article reported other creative tactics employed by meth smugglers: “The discoveries in California bookended a third, similar incident in Georgia, where agents found more than 2,300 pounds of meth hidden inside a truck carrying celery at a farmer’s market outside of Atlanta. Earlier this year, six tons of meth were discovered inside a shipment of squash in California, after 3,000 pounds of the narcotic and cocaine were found last year in bins of jalapeño paste that were being transported over the border. Traffickers have also stashed drugs inside shipments of green beans, sugar, flour and candy.”
If this is what’s being found by law enforcement agents, what is getting through?
Source: Mexico News Report
