OTAY MESA, Calif. (KNX) – Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection found over 1,300 packages of meth disguised as onion shipments at the Otay Mesa facility.
The discovery was made on Feb. 20 when Custom and Border Protection officers met a 46-year-old driver who had a shipment of what looked like onions in a tractor trailer.
An officer ordered that the truck should go through an “intensive examination”, where a canine team investigated the truck and trailer, according to a press release.
When one of the dogs noticed something, officers searched the shipment and found packages of meth mixed with onions.
“The packages of methamphetamine were shaped into small globes with a white covering, designed to blend into the onions they were hidden with,” officials wrote in the press release.
Officers removed 1,336 pounds of meth, believed to be worth almost $3 million.
Officials said the driver was arrested and turned over to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations.
“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,” said 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.”
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