$18 Million in Smuggled Drugs Found in Shipment of Bananas

In Texas, a shipment of bananas was found to be carrying a hidden load of cocaine..540 packages.....18 million dollars worth.

The Produce News
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This $18 million drug bust is bananas
September 24, 2018


Last week two pallets of bananas from ports of America in Freeport were donated to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice because they were too ripe. When two sergeants arrived to pick them up, they discovered something not quite right.banan

"Sometimes, life gives you lemons. Sometimes, it gives you bananas — and sometimes, it gives you something you'd never expect," said TDCJ.

"One of the boxes felt different than the others," according to TDCJ. "They snipped the straps, pulled free the box, and opened it up. Inside, under a bundle of bananas, he found another bundle! Inside that? What appeared to be a white powdery substance. They immediately notified port authorities and awaited their instruction."

U.S. Customs & Border Protection arrived on the scene, and the substance tested positive as cocaine. Customs agents then searched each box on the two pallets, "and they were all ripe and loaded," said TDCJ. "Once all 45 boxes had been emptied, what was left was quite the cache. With an instinct that something just wasn't quite right, our guys uncovered 540 packages of cocaine within the shipment, with an estimated street value of $17.82 million."

The Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs & Border Protection are both continuing their investigation.