NEWS
Border Patrol Finds 4 Tons of Weed Hidden in Jalapeño Shipment
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Although this may be one of the spiciest attempt to smuggle weed across the border, it's somehow not the weirdest.
Published on August 19, 2019

US border guards just seized nearly four tons of weed that were stashed in a shipment of jalapeño peppers.

Last Thursday, at the Otay Mesa border crossing from Mexico into California, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers flagged a tractor carrying a trailer full of peppers for a secondary inspection. The spicy aroma of thousands of hot peppers was not enough to throw off the dank scent of several tons of weed, which was quickly sniffed out by a K-9 team.

Among the hot cargo, cops discovered 314 packages wrapped in green plastic. If the color of the packaging wasn't enough to tip the officers off, field testing quickly revealed that these packages were stuffed full of weed. In total, CBP seized 7,560 pounds of pot, worth around $2.3 million. Police seized both the weed and the vehicle, but there has been no word on whether criminal charges have been filed against the tractor's driver, a 37-year-old Mexican citizen.

Gallery — Photos of Cops Smoking Weed:

“I am proud of the officers for seizing this significant marijuana load,” said Otay Mesa Port Director Rosa Hernandez in a statement.  “Not only did they prevent the drugs from reaching our community, they also prevented millions of dollars of potential profit from making it into the hands of a transnational criminal organization.”

CBP officials made another huge drug bust at the same border crossing just two days earlier, seizing over 10,000 pounds of weed hidden amongst plastic auto parts.

Although this may have been the spiciest attempt to smuggle weed across the border, it's somehow not the weirdest. Drug smugglers have been busted trying to literally hurl weed over the border in catapults and cannons, and attempts to disguise packages of weed as carrots or limes have also spectacularly failed. Border police have also discovered pot stashed in a statue of Jesus, piñatas, and fake rocks.

Although border police are continually foiling attempts to smuggle weed into California, police are busting more and more people trying to smuggle pot out of the state. Since the Golden State legalized adult-use sales, police have reported a 166 percent increase in the number of people they busted trying to smuggle weed out of the state on commercial airlines.

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Chris Moore
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Chris Moore is a New York-based writer who has written for Mass Appeal while also mixing records and producing electronic music.
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