Officers find nearly $3M worth of meth disguised in onion shipment
OTAY MESA, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers found over 1,000 packages of meth inside shipments of onions.
On Sunday at about 1 p.m., CBP officers pulled over a tractor-trailer that was shipping onions, when a canine team detected something within the shipment.
1,197 packets of meth worth about $2.9 million were found hidden inside sacks of onions by attempting to blend in with small globes.
“This was not only a clever attempt to try and smuggle in narcotics, one I haven’t seen before, but also time consuming to wrap narcotics into these small packages, designed to look like onions,” stated Sidney Aki, CBP Director of Field Operations in San Diego. “These efforts show how effective our officers are, and as a response, the lengths drug trafficking organizations are willing to go to as they try to smuggle narcotics into the U.S. While we have certainly seen narcotics in produce before, it’s unusual for us to see this level of detail in the concealment.”
The 46-year-old driver was arrested for attempting to smuggle illegal drugs.
