Someone Call Omar! Police Just Found 147 Pounds of Cocaine at a Baltimore Shipping Port

Remember season two of The Wire? If you haven't been living underneath a rock for the past seven years, you'll recall how integral the Baltimore ports were to smuggling drugs like cocaine and heroin (amongst other things) into the poverty-stricken city.

In a particularly remarkable instance of life imitating art, customs officials recently found 147 pounds of cocaine imported from Brazil and stored in a shipping container at the Port of Baltimore.

The cocaine was discovered on August 4 when, during a routine inspection using imaging technologies, Customs and Border Protection officials found "anomalies" in what was supposed to be a simple commercial shipment of lumber. After investigating a little further, the officials found two duffel bags that had been stuffed with a combined 57 bricks of what later field-tested positive as cocaine.

Although it has not been disclosed what methods were used to measure this, it has been reported that the estimated street value for this amount is more than $4 million.

Speaking on the topic to NBC, the Customs and Border Protection area port director for the Port of Baltimore, Dianna Bowman, said, "Narcotics interdiction remains a top Customs and Border Protection enforcement priority, and this case illustrates how CBP officers leverage non-intrusive imaging technologies to intercept dangerous drugs and to help keep our communities safe."

According to the report, this is the largest drug seizure at the Port of Baltimore since 2007—then, police officers seized a whopping 310 pounds of cocaine which had been shipped from Ecuador and split between three duffel bags.

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