It seems that drug traffickers have wild imaginations, though they may not be as clever as they think. In an effort to hide drugs from drug enforcement agents, they have come up with various ways to hide or disguise their illegal products.
In January, a women was sent to prison for smuggling heroin balls in potato chip bags. According to a US Drug Enforcement Administration press release, during an inspection at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge Port of Entry in Laredo, law enforcement discovered two yellow bags of potato chips inside of the woman’s purse. The bags appeared to be sealed and unopened. However, the contents felt like a heavy ball. Further inspection revealed the bags contained heroin bundles weighing 983.9 grams.
The DEA also reported that over 150 pounds of crystal meth concealed inside air compressor canisters were found in New York. Agents and investigators were conducting surveillance in a neighborhood of Manhattan when they observed someone in a parking lot near a white van cutting open an air compressor canister using power tools. Another air compressor canister was sitting nearby. Agents and investigators stopped the suspicious person and searched both canisters, recovering more than 100 pounds of crystal methamphetamine from inside the containers.
Tube-shaped containers seem to be a favorite with drug traffickers. Last year, it was reported that when authorities conducted a seizure on a vehicle in the parking lot of a grocery store located in Laredo, Texas, they discovered kilograms of liquid meth hidden inside multiple fire extinguishers.
Stretch your imagination and think of a curved tube, like a banana, and you will find that drugs have even been disguised as banana shipments. One of the largest seizures of cocaine in Turkish history happened at a port in the southern part of the country. Over a ton of the drug was seized by agents of Turkish Customs who were working for the ministry and the local police department. Acting on a tip, 1,000 packages of cocaine were discovered in a container of bananas aboard a ship arriving from Ecuador.
And one cartel leader seemed to have many ideas for disguising and concealing drugs. An investigation that took place over several years, helped authorities identify the leader, couriers, stash house operators and transportation coordinators, all responsible for smuggling multi-kilogram quantities of narcotics concealed in fire extinguishers, wooden blocks, car batteries and hydraulic jacks.
But tube-like containers are not the only way to hide drugs. Disguising that potentially lethal drug as colorful, candy-like pills seem common in the illicit drug world. A year ago, a Maine news station reported that law enforcement there seized green and purple candy-shaped pills containing methamphetamine and fentanyl. According to the report, the pills were shaped like candy or vitamin-like alien heads and hand grenades. Also in March, a middle school student in Georgia was suspended after bringing drug-laced candy known as “medicated Skittlez” to school. Last year a bag of candy shaped like gummy bears and packaged as a popular candy was seized. According to the OnlineAthens article, “suspects melted Jolly Ranchers candy and fused it with fentanyl, then shaped it in a mold similar to gummy bears. The candy was then hardened and repackaged in the Jolly Rancher wrappers.” (Read more in This Colorful Sweet Treat Could Be Deadly.)
Hiding illicit drugs by infusing the fibers of material in clothing and towels may seem extreme, but is not a new way of smuggling. Not too long ago, Chilean Customs officials discovered 29 clothing items impregnated with MDMA coming from Spain at the Santiago Airport. MDMA, sometimes referred to as Molly or Ecstasy, is a synthetic drug that acts as a stimulant and hallucinogen. In other cases, liquid cocaine has been poured into the fabric of clothes, a process which increases the weight of the garment by around 15 per cent, and then the process is reversed in a lab to extract the drug without losing a single gram. (Read Is Clothing with Infused Illegal Drugs the Latest Summer Fashion?)
Because of these imaginative ways to hide drugs, law enforcement agents need the latest narcotics identification technologies to help find cocaine and the many more drugs. Police, customs, and first responders must be able to identify unknown substances on the spot to keep the public and themselves safe – whether it’s on the street corner or at a large shipping port at the border. Many law enforcement officials utilize handheld integrated Raman and FTIR spectroscopy instruments, capable of identifying individual substances, solids and liquids from narcotics to explosives and chemical warfare agents to industrial chemicals and precursors. Utilizing these handheld material identification devices, agents are quickly able to successfully identify – within minutes – unknown substances including some mixtures of components.
Today thousands of DEA employees located in hundreds of offices across the country and around the world are dedicated to keeping folks safe from dangerous drugs and those that traffic in them, no matter how they are disguised.
Learn More:
- Download the eBook – Safer Narcotics Identification: A Guide for Communities and Agencies
- Online Resources: Threat Detection Solutions for Public Safety and Security
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