drug smuggling

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Australia's Biggest Cocaine Bust Was Very Easy

Boat breaks down with $500M worth of cocaine

(Newser) - Australian authorities scored the biggest cocaine bust in the nation's history over the weekend, seizing more than 2 tons of cocaine worth about $500 million, reports the BBC . The remarkable thing was how easy it was: Authorities say the smugglers' boat broke down off the coast of Queensland, per...

CBP Probably Didn't Expect to Find This Much Bologna

Officers in Texas say woman coming from Mexico had 750 pounds' worth of meat in car, plus drugs

(Newser) - When officials inspected the bags of a woman crossing over from Mexico into Texas earlier this week, they noticed her suitcases seemed to be heavier than they should. They soon found out why: Customs and Border Protection says that when they opened up the bags in the GMC Yukon at...

Somehow, These Fake 'Melons' Failed to Fool Border Agents

Meth, wrapped in plastic and painted to deceive, was intercepted at border

(Newser) - The thing is, it probably took a lot of time to paint the drug packages to look like watermelons. But the results were, let's say, not that great. As a result, US border agents intercepted more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine at the US-Mexico border, reports the BBC...

DEA Agent: 'Obviously, We Threw Away the Celery'

2.3K pounds of meth were found in truckload of the veggie

(Newser) - The Drug Enforcement Administration says it found something very unwholesome lurking in a truckload of celery at a farmers market in Georgia. The agency says it uncovered 2,380 pounds of methamphetamine Monday in the third-biggest meth bust in the US this year and the biggest in the history of...

Days After Arrest, Flyer Is Busted at Same Airport

CBP says he tried to smuggle ketamine into, and out of, the US

(Newser) - A man who was arrested for trying to smuggle ketamine into the US from Europe through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was arrested again in the same week for trying to smuggle the drug in the other direction, US Customs and Border Protection says. In a news release , the agency says the...

Lawyer Accused of Bringing More Than Papers to Jail

Ronald Lewis, 77, is accused of smuggling drug-laced documents to inmates in Texas facility

(Newser) - A good attorney will have your back as you navigate all the legalities of your case. An even better attorney knows that "having your back" doesn't translate to sneaking narcotics into the facility where you're incarcerated. That's exactly what lawyer Ronald Henry Lewis is accused of...

Cocaine in Wheelchair Could Get Man Life Sentence

Hong Kong customs agents found 24 pounds of suspected cocaine in wheelchair cushions

(Newser) - Authorities in Hong Kong say an airline passenger's wheelchair was packed with enough suspected cocaine to get him a potential life sentence. The South China Morning Post reports that the 51-year-old passenger, who has mobility issues, flew with the motorized wheelchair as one of his items of checked baggage....

Men Praised After Sea Rescue Were Drug Smugglers: Cops

Australian Federal Police hunting for 2 of 3 men who alerted emergency beacon off WA

(Newser) - A trio of men praised by authorities after they were found clinging to a cooler in the ocean off Western Australia earlier this month are now suspected of smuggling 800 pounds of cocaine. Aristides Avlontis, 36, Mate Stipinovich, 49, and Karl Whitburn, 45, claimed they were fishermen whose boat capsized...

Flight Attendant Admits to Fentanyl Smuggling Scheme
Drug-Smuggling Plot Goes
Awry for Flight Attendant
in case you missed it
Dec 31, 2022 4:50 PM CST

Drug-Smuggling Plot Goes Awry for Flight Attendant

Terese White admits taping 3 lbs. to her abdomen, a tiny fraction of total fentanyl seized in US in 2022

(Newser) - A flight attendant pleaded guilty last week to drug trafficking charges after being busted with 3 pounds of fentanyl taped to her body in San Diego International Airport. Per the San Diego Union-Tribune , Terese L. White, 41, entered her plea in a San Diego federal courtroom. White is from Dallas,...

How the US Blew It on Fentanyl
How the US Blew It
on Fentanyl
longform
Dec 12, 2022 1:18 PM CST

How the US Blew It on Fentanyl

'Washington Post' investigation spreads the blame over multiple administrations

(Newser) - Fentanyl overdoses kill about 196 Americans every day, “the equivalent of a fully loaded Boeing 757-200 crashing and killing everyone on board,” according to the Washington Post , which on Monday published an extensive and damning report on the federal government’s failure to stem the flow of a...

Belgium Has a Drug Problem. It's Not What You Think
Belgium Has
an Unusual
Drug Problem
Nov 22, 2022 4:34 PM CST

Belgium Has an Unusual Drug Problem

Authorities are seizing so much cocaine their incinerators can't handle the load

(Newser) - Authorities at Belgium's port of Antwerp have gotten so good at intercepting smuggled cocaine that it's led to an unexpected problem: Their incinerators can't burn it all fast enough. And as AFP explains, that has led to a related problem: There's so much seized cocaine lying...

In Ecuador, a 'Declaration of Open War'

Murders of 5 police officers on Tuesday attributed to criminal gangs

(Newser) - Five police officers were killed in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil on Tuesday, including two shot dead in their patrol car, in what some say is evidence of "criminal rule," per the Guardian . Officials described nine attacks in the city in apparent response to the transfer of hundreds...

Border Patrol Found More Than Pulp Inside These Pumpkins

Officials discovered $400K worth of meth in gourds arriving from Mexico

(Newser) - Last week, more than $300,000 worth of methamphetamine was uncovered at Texas' Eagle Pass Port of Entry, across from Piedras Negras in Mexico. This week, drug smugglers got a little more creative with their meth stash: cramming it into four condom-filled pumpkins, reports NBC News . A release from Customs...

For Spanish Police, a Drug-Smuggling First

Cops say they seized 3 underwater drones meant to carry 'large quantities of cocaine'

(Newser) - A probe that lasted more than a year has led to the arrest of eight and the seizure of three underwater drones that were apparently built to smuggle drugs across the Strait of Gibraltar. The BBC reports Spain's police force seized the unmanned submersibles—one completed and two still...

Feds Find First Major Drug Tunnel Since 2020

It ran from Tijuana to San Diego warehouse

(Newser) - The legalization of marijuana in California hasn't put the cross-border tunnel builders in the San Diego area out of business, but the highly sophisticated tunnels are now being used for different drugs, federal authorities say. The latest tunnel to be detected ran 1,744 feet from a property in...

Death of Diver Led Cops to Staggering Cocaine Haul

Australian police fear drugs from total shipment worth $84M have already reached the public

(Newser) - The death of a diver on the side of a coastal river in Australia led authorities to at least 220 pounds of cocaine—and that's apparently just the tip of the white powder iceberg. A man in high-end diving equipment was found unconscious near the Hunter River in Newcastle,...

Half a Ton of Cocaine Found in Coffee Shipment

Nespresso says drug hasn't contaminated its coffee pods

(Newser) - After more than half a ton of cocaine was found among a shipment of coffee beans at a Nespresso plant, the company reassured customers that its coffee pods would not provide a bigger jolt than customers were used to. "The substance in question did not come into contact with...

Singapore Decides This Disabled Man Must Hang

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose IQ is 69, loses final appeal over drug smuggling

(Newser) - A Malaysian man with a mental disability lost a final legal appeal Tuesday against his death sentence in Singapore and faces execution soon, a lawyer and rights activists said. Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam has been on death row for more than a decade for trying to smuggle less than 1.5...

The World Has a New 'Narcostate'
Syria's Biggest Export
May Surprise You
longform
Dec 6, 2021 3:09 PM CST

Syria's Biggest Export May Surprise You

'New York Times' alleges that Syria is a 'narcostate' pumping out amphetamine captagon

(Newser) - Last week, Syrian authorities trumpeted the seizure of a large cache of illegal amphetamine pills known as captagon and said an investigation was underway to figure out where the pills came from, notes the AP . Now, an investigation by the New York Times may provide the answer: The Syrian government...

Man to Be Hanged for Bringing Bundles of Pot Into Singapore

Appeal that centered on claiming confession was coerced was dismissed Tuesday

(Newser) - A man in Singapore is going to be hanged for bringing three bundles of cannabis into the country. Omar Yacob Bamadhaj, 41, lost an appeal Tuesday of a sentence handed down in February. In July 2018, Bamadhaj had hopped across the border from the tiny city-state into Malaysia to run...

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