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Drugs

Smugglers Tried to Fool Border Patrol Agents with Weed Disguised as Limes

The pot was packaged to look like 34,000 limes stashed inside a commercial fruit shipment.
Image via US Border Patrol

US Customs and Border Patrol agents on the Texas-Mexico border intercepted a shipment of almost 4,000 pounds of marijuana last Monday. But this weed wasn't packed inside garbage bags or separated in bricks—it was ingeniously packaged to look like 34,000 key limes stashed inside a commercial shipment, CNN reports.

"This is an outstanding interception of narcotics," Port director Efrain Solis Jr. said in a statement. "Our CBP officers continue to excel in their knowledge of smuggling techniques which allows them to intercept these kinds of attempts to introduce narcotics into our country." Border Patrol agents noticed there was something amiss about the tractor-trailer hauling the "fruit," and ordered it to be inspected a second time. An imaging inspection system and a K-9 team rooted out the problem during that second inspection. US Customs officials value the shipment at around $789,467, which is a very specific dollar amount for a bunch of weed disguised as limes.

Despite the claim that smuggling marijuana is easy, apparently the government doesn't fall for the old lime trick anymore. Add that to the list of drug-smuggling schemes to avoid, along with disguising pot to look like deformed carrots or just shoving it inside a suitcase and hoping no one notices.