contraband

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Airport Shuttered by Cigarette-Smuggling Balloons

Contraband from Belarus triggers flight chaos for thousands in Lithuania

(Newser) - Flights were brought to a halt at Lithuania's busiest airport over the weekend after dozens of balloons loaded with black-market cigarettes drifted in from Belarus. Lithuanian officials said 25 balloons—normally used for meteorological purposes—were detected Sunday, with two ending up above Vilnius Airport, prompting the cancellation...

At Young Thug Trial, a 'Hand-to-Hand Drug Transaction'

Prosecutors claim rapper was handed a Percocet by co-defendant right in court

(Newser) - The judge overseeing Young Thug's racketeering and conspiracy trial in Georgia claimed last week that someone hid marijuana in shoes brought to court for one of the 14 co-defendants, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . It was apparently the start of a trend. On Tuesday, the mother of defendant and rapper...

50 Wheels of Undeclared Cheese Cost NM Woman

She was fined $1K after trying to enter Texas from Mexico

(Newser) - Officers with Customs and Border Protection say they stopped a woman hiding contraband under a blanket in her SUV as she tried to cross the Texas border from Mexico earlier this month. But it wasn't drugs, or even weapons—though it may have been sharp: It was 50 wheels...

Inside Prison's Stitched-Up Rats, All This

What a fun find in Dorset, England

(Newser) - Those aiming to sneak contraband into a UK prison assumed guards wouldn't inspect dead rats. Too bad the guards at Guys March prison in Dorset, England, noticed stitches over the bellies of three animals, believed to have been thrown over a prison wall. Inside, reports Reuters , were five cellphones...

An 'Abrupt About-Face' for Va. Prison Ban on Tampons

Tampon, menstrual cup ban for inmate visitors has been suspended—for the moment

(Newser) - Virginia is suspending a newly introduced policy that would have barred women who visit inmates at state prisons from using tampons or menstrual cups. Secretary of Public and Homeland Security Safety Brian Moran said Tuesday on Twitter that he'd ordered an "immediate suspension until further review." The...

The 6 Oddest Things Seized by Customs in 2015

Smugglers will put drugs into anything

(Newser) - Customs and Border Protection released its list of the 10 weirdest things it seized in 2015, and as ABC News reports, everything from bugs to drugs to hoverboards made the list in a testament to smugglers' ongoing battle between impressive creativity and astounding stupidity. Here are six of the oddest...

Cops Bust Drone Delivery of Porn DVDs, Drugs to Prison

2 men face charges; charges also expected against an inmate

(Newser) - Someone inside Maryland's Western Correctional Institution will be waiting a long time for his porn delivery. Officials say two men have become the first in the state to be charged with attempting to deliver contraband items to a prison via drone after they were found with a Yuneec Typhoon...

Inmates Use Contraband Phones, Texts to Stage Strike

Text messages unite prisoners in seven Georgia lockups

(Newser) - Georgia experienced what could be described as the first viral prison protest this weekend, as inmates in at least seven penitentiaries coordinated a mass strike using contraband cell phones. The inmates have refused to work until the state starts paying them to do so and provides them with more educational...

Con Packed a Lot of Junk in His Trunk

Guards amazed by size of Washington inmate's rectal stash

(Newser) - A Washington state man turned his rectum into an Aladdin's Cave of contraband in preparation for a 3-day stay in prison, police say. The man managed to smuggle in a lighter, rolling papers, a baggie of tobacco, a bottle of tattoo ink, eight tattoo needles, a one-inch-long smoking pipe and...

Milan's Poor Get Contraband Caviar for Xmas

(Newser) - The poor and homeless in Milan will get a pricey treat this holiday season, the BBC reports. Officials will distribute 88 pounds of beluga caviar seized from smugglers to the city’s shelters and soup kitchens. The sturgeon roe, confiscated in November en route from Poland, is valued at around...

Dogs Fetch Contraband Cell Phones in Jails

Md., Va. among states using canines to bust crooks' outside contact

(Newser) - Dogs, it turns out, can sniff out more than just bombs and drugs. Authorities in Maryland and Virginia have canines rooting out cell phones, described by one official as "perhaps the worst type of contraband" in today's prisons. The increasingly tiny devices are easy to smuggle in, the Washington ...

US Troops High on Afghan Heroin
US Troops
High on
Afghan Heroin
Aug 7, 2007 11:15 AM CDT

US Troops High on Afghan Heroin

Boredom, frustration drive soldiers to cheap, ubiquitous drug

(Newser) - Bored US soldiers have easy access to heroin in poppy-rich Afghanistan, and few fear punishment if they're caught using it, Salon reports. Filmmaker Shaun McCanna says he was able to score heroin easily on over a dozen occasions during his two trips to the war-torn country.

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