US Customs officers seize cocaine concealed in cooler cups shipped from Jamaica

PHILADELPHIA, CMC – The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency says it has interrupted a “cool trend” in drug concealment after stopping four shipments of “secreted” cocaine inside the insulated walls of thermos cups from Jamaica.

The agency said officers in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City and Philadelphia intercepted four shipments of cocaine from the island that “similarly concealed the cocaine inside the insulated walls of four thermos cups”.

It said that the combined seizures weighed more than 2.5 pounds and had a street value of about US$70,000 and that each shipment consisted of four souvenir insulated thermos cups that were packed with tea bags, bagged spices or vaporising ointment.

The agency said that the first of the four shipments was detected on March 10, when officers in Philadelphia inspected the insulated cups from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

“Officers found that each insulated cup was filled with tea bags or spice bags and were unusually heavy. Officers drilled into the sidewall of each cup and discovered a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for cocaine.”

The agency said this shipment was destined to an address in Philadelphia and later discovered that three similar shipments from Jamaica were in transit through express consignment processing centres in Cincinnati, New York and Philadelphia.

All the remaining shipments were intercepted.

“These cocaine seizures perfectly illustrate how Customs and Border Protection officers across the country routinely collaborate to intercept shipments of dangerous drugs and force traffickers to work hard to change concealment tactics and supply routes,” said Joseph Martella, CBP's Area Port Director in Philadelphia.

“Our communities expect us to stand a vigilant watch along our nation's borders against the repeated smuggling attempts by drug trafficking organisations, and CBP vows to do just that,” he added.

The agency said that an average of 4,732 pounds of dangerous drugs was seized every day last year along America's borders.

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