BUSTED: 12 crazy ways drugs are being disguised for smuggling
From fruits and vegetables to flower shipments, vigilance at American airports and borders means drug smugglers have to find new ways to get their illicit products into the country.
Similarly, once in the US, the people who buy them also have some inventive ways to hide their stash, but sometimes they get caught.
While some of these disguises are downright convincing, others have been plain crazy.
They put the WHAT in the coconut?!
Last year, federal agents in Pharr, Texas, found nearly 1,500 pounds of pot stuffed inside coconuts being hauled by a tractor-trailer.
Overall, agents estimated it had a street value of $285,000.
These limes were really really green
Less than a year later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection became wise to a plot involving fake limes at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
The January 2017 seizure of 4,000 pounds of fake, marijuana-stuffed limes made headlines around the world, and had a street value of $800,000.
Must have been eating their carrots...
Nutritionists will tell you the Vitamin A and beta-carotene in carrots can give you good eyesight. Some quick-thinking border agents must have had their share, because they could see right through this next one.
Pot-stuffed "carrots," 2,500 pounds in all, were seized with the help of an X-ray machine last January. They had a street value of $500,000.
A seedy disguise
How about the time Border Patrol agents stopped someone hauling some "fresh" watermelons? Imaging technology revealed they actually held about 400 individual packages of marijuana.
Pee-yew!
While asparagus can give you odorous urine if you eat too much, some alleged Peruvian criminals probably thought it stunk getting caught with asparagus cans full of cocaine.
A two-month investigation in Lima ended with the arrest of six men, and the seizure of $174 million worth of cocaine, two vans, a Glock pistol, computers and other electronic equipment, plus $75,000 in cash.
In case you're wondering, it's not just the produce aisle giving would-be criminals inspiration for how to hide their drugs.
A step above...until you're caught
Shoes seemed like a pretty good disguise when a Guyanese citizen allegedly tried smuggling cocaine in his footwear through JFK Airport, in New York.
Officials said he had $67,000 worth of cocaine inside his kicks.
Now he's facing federal narcotics charges.
Wheel-y bad idea
Heavy machinery has even been used to hide drugs, like when Houston police found 60 bundles of marijuana and 13 kilos of meth inside the boom of an excavator.
In all, police said there was $700,000 worth of drugs in the construction equipment.
Going nowhere
Attention criminals: Filling your gas tank with 40 pounds of meth won't get you to the grocery store or the movies, but it can land you in jail.
Border Patrol agents in California recently said a 19-year-old tried to get away with hiding the illicit drugs in his 2010 Ford Fusion. A K-9 cop caught a sniff. The teen ended up in handcuffs.
Is nothing sacred?
Puzzles are a great pastime for families, but someone in the Netherlands allegedly thought they'd make a cool place to stash and transport some narcotics.
Police traced these packages to a woman near Riverside, California. She was arrested, but only after they allegedly found more than 1,000 ecstasy pills and 90 Xanax stuffed inside a puzzle box and similar packages.
The guacamole will cost you extra
There was no chorizo or ground beef in this burrito. Instead, Customs agents in Arizona said a woman tried to smuggle $3,000 worth of meth wrapped in a tortilla.
A poor waste of Mexican food, if you ask us.
That's cold, taking a little girl's purse (allegedly)...
Little girls everywhere love Disney's "Frozen." Sadly, a man was accused of using his 3-year-old daughter's purse themed with Anna, Elsa, and Olaf to hide drugs during a traffic stop.
Houston police said they found marijuana and MDMA stuffed inside, known on the street as "ecstasy, X, or Molly."
Beware sweet tooths
Drugs that look like candy have been around a very long time, and it doesn't seem there is much stopping this trend.
A woman in Houston said her 15-year-old student got dangerous drugs that looked like Jolly Ranchers from a classmate.
These synthetic drugs look like ordinary candy, and come in forms including chocolate bars, roll-up candies, hard candies, lollipops, suckers.
The worst part? They can seriously hurt children and teens who ingest them, and many may not know the danger until it is too late.
