United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently encountered what it described as a “seedy situation” at the Mexico-U.S. border: phony, meth-filled fake watermelons hidden among a shipment of bona fide watermelons.
The CBP said in a statement that officers at the Otay Mesa port of entry between San Diego and Tijuana seized more than US $5 million worth of methamphetamine “disguised and concealed within a shipment of watermelons.”
The incident occurred last Friday when a 29-year-old man arrived at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility in a tractor trailer. The driver was “seeking entry into the United States from Mexico, hauling a shipment manifested for watermelons,” CBP said.
The man and his cargo were sent to a secondary inspection area, where the watermelon shipment was offloaded for further examination.
“Upon careful inspection, officers uncovered 1,220 packages wrapped in paper, disguised as watermelons within the shipment,” CBP said.
“The contents of the packages were tested and identified as methamphetamine, with a total weight of 4,587 pounds [2,080 kg]. The estimated street value of the drugs exceeds $5 million dollars,” the agency said.
CBP officers seized the meth and the tractor-trailer, while the driver “was turned over to the custody of Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation,” CBP said.
In the past, smugglers have attempted to hide drugs in shipments of a range of different produce including strawberries and onions. Earlier this month, CBP officers at Otay Mesa found almost 300 kilograms of meth hidden in a shipment of celery.
Smugglers have tried to conceal narcotics in even more inventive ways, including by inserting fentanyl pills into tamales and filling tequila bottles with liquid meth.
Rosa E. Hernandez, Port Director at Otay Mesa, said she was “incredibly proud of our team for their exceptional work over the past few weeks in uncovering sophisticated and diverse smuggling methods.”
“As drug cartels continue to evolve their smuggling techniques, we will continue finding new and better ways to prevent these dangerous drugs and other contraband from entering the country,” she said.
Mexican cartels manufacture methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs in clandestine labs.
The navy last month dismantled one such lab in Sinaloa, confiscating at the same time 3,920 kilograms of material presumed to be methamphetamine along with 28,600 liquid liters and 2,250 kg of precursor chemicals.
Mexico News Daily
