A truck driver is in custody after attempting to transport a huge cargo of marijuana. The contraband had been packed by a Mexican drug cartel and hand-pained to look like watermelons – a trick that almost worked.
Drug cartel tried to smuggle marijuana painted to look like watermelon http://t.co/DGeIqTupcE pic.twitter.com/S5O1OE3KbL
— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) June 21, 2014
Fox News reported that the driver had already made it past the U.S border, and driven through one checkpoint 20 miles South of where the driver was stopped by U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on Interstate 19, south of Tucson, AZ.
Upon questioning, the driver said he was hauling a shipment of watermelons. But when agents X-rayed the “fruit”, what they found instead was millions of dollars worth of marijuana.
“These criminals use a lot of unique ways to try to conceal their narcotics,” Tucson CBP Agent Bryan Flowers said. “We’ve seen individuals use false compartments in the seats and gas tanks. We’ve also found marijuana in tractor trailers here before.”
For example, he said, in April 2010, agents discovered 9,500 pounds of pot hidden in actual watermelons. In June 2008, in Nogales, narcotic dogs sniffed out 5,00 pounds of the drug, which at the time was valued at $8.3 million.