Fall is officially here, which obviously means pumpkin everything: pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin patch pictures, and (apparently) pumpkin drug smuggling?
On Thursday, Sept. 17, federal agents at the Port of Philadelphia received a tip regarding a shipment coming in from Costa Rica. After the U.S. Customs and Border Protection began searching every single box in the shipment, they ended up discovering and seizing about 360 pounds of cocaine that was lined in boxes transporting pumpkins and other vegetables. This totals to about $6 million, which, according to the Associated Press, makes this “the port’s eighth largest cocaine seizure to date.”
Strange, right? This got me thinking, though. How often do people use food as a cover up to try and smuggle drugs? Well, it may not be too often, but most attempts are certainly memorable.
I literally Cant(aloupe).
Cantaloupe may be the ignored fruit in your fruit salad, but it caught some attention in a Washington jail in 2010. Two unidentified women donated a cantaloupe to the local Justice Center when guards noticed that the cantaloupe appeared to be cut open at the top. It was soon found that the cantaloupe had been stuffed with packets of tobacco and oxycodone. Because why would a prison guards notice something as inconspicuous as a giant chunk cut out of a donated cantaloupe and casually put back?
That's nacho best idea.
In 2011, authorities on watch at the U.S.-Mexican border caught a man trying to smuggle methamphetamine by stuffing it in cans of nacho cheese. He was caught because the cans seemed too heavy, which makes sense seeing as how he had about seven pounds of meth in those cans.
Can I get a cocaine and banana smoothie, please?
Some people use their bananas in their smoothies, some eat them running out of the door on their way to class, and some stuff theirs with cocaine. According to the Daily Mail, on a 2012 flight from Ghana to Heathrow, authorities uncovered plantains that were stuffed and resealed with 16.5 pounds of cocaine. For those of you who aren’t drug dealers, that is about $750,000 worth of cocaine just chilling in banana peels.
Don't forget to pack underwear, toothpaste, and pumpkins.
There may be strange stories out there, but at least you can imagine these peoples' reasoning. You can imagine a drug dealer thinking "no one will suspect this banana if I reseal it." But I cannot imagine how this Montreal woman thought this would play out when she went to Montreal's Trudeau International Airport in 2013 with three large pumpkins in her suitcase. She was caught by customs agents after going through security with said pumpkins in tow. Wait, you don't take full sized pumpkins on all of your trips? Well, the customs agents must have thought these were strange items, too, because they stopped to search the woman's belongings and found approximately two pounds of cocaine.
So the next time you go to a pumpkin patch and take your artsy pics for Instagram, remember that the pumpkin you are holding may or may not have been part of a drug smuggling attempt. Probably not, but you never know.
