Fake watermelons full of drugs fail to fool US agents
United States border agents have intercepted a truck carrying more than $5m-worth of methamphetamine at the US-Mexico border hidden inside a shipment of watermelons.
The drugs were wrapped in plastic painted in two shades of green to resemble the fruit and placed among real watermelons.
The drugs were wrapped in plastic painted in two shades of green to resemble the fruit and placed among real watermelons.
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00:00United States border agents have intercepted a truck carrying more than $5 million worth
00:05of methamphetamine at the US-Mexico border hidden inside a shipment of watermelons.
00:10The drugs were wrapped in plastic painted in two shades of green to resemble the fruit and
00:15placed among real watermelons. More than two tons of methamphetamine,
00:20in a total of 1,220 packages, was seized by officers.
00:25Stashing drugs among produce is a common way to smuggle the illicit substances across borders.
00:31Banana shipments are the most popular but officers have recently found
00:35narcotics in Gouda cheese and avocados. US Customs and Border Protection officials
00:40said their officers had stopped a truck hauling a trailer at the border with Mexico in Otaymesa.
00:46The paperwork suggested the driver was transporting a shipment for watermelons
00:51but a inspection revealed the parcels containing methamphetamine.
00:55Also known simply as meth, it is a powerful and highly addictive stimulant.
01:00The driver was handed over to Homeland Security officials.
01:04The seizure came a week after officials at the same border crossing discovered almost
01:08300 kilograms of meth in a shipment of celery. Both hauls came to a total value of $6 million,
01:16according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner. Mexican drug cartels are the leading producers
01:23and suppliers of methamphetamine to the United States. In February, Mexican security forces
01:30seized more than 40 tons of the drug at the biggest lab to be discovered in recent years.
01:35Mexican officials said the lab boasted more than 200 centrifuges,
01:40boilers and condensing chambers, key equipment used to make the chemical.