Methamphetamine Disguised As Watermelons Seized At US Mexico Border Likely Because They Look Nothing Like Watermelons
AP NEWS — A truckload of methamphetamine disguised as a shipment of watermelons was seized at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Diego, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
The methamphetamine, valued at more than $5 million, was found Aug. 16 when the cargo aboard a tractor-trailer from Mexico was unloaded for a detailed inspection, the agency said in a statement.
Among real watermelons, officers found 1,220 packages wrapped in paper colored to look like watermelon skins.
In a past life I coordinated the shipments of watermelons. It was a nightmare. The week before Memorial Day was a legit war. Long story short there was a buyer who would buy shipments of watermelons at X price and sell it to our customers (big retail produce chains like BJ's etc) at a profit. Ie - they would buy it at $12 a case and sell it for $15. On my side there would be transportation provided for the same profit. We would tell a customer the load would coast $1700 to move, pay a driver $1400 and move along. Now like with anything involving pricing and sales and transportation it's a game of gambling. The $1700 we said we were able to move it for could move in our favor and pay a driver $1100, or it could move against us and pay $1700 where we make nothing. With watermelons it ALWAYS moved against us. I mean against us bad. Some days we told customers it would be $1700 and we paid $2500 or worse. Additionally, once you finally found a driver to take the load you had to beg and plead them to stay on it because it takes FOREVER to load a shipment of watermelons. Literally forever, so these guys didn't want to waste all day sitting there doing nothing and wanted to be paid etc. It was constant battles, and the customers on the buying side would just say "soon" when you asked them when your guy would be loaded. Yeah right. All these convos were done at 24-26 years old when all anyone on the desk wanted to do was go down the shore and party. It almost ruined Memorial Day Weekend for me forever.
I say all this in this story to prove I think I know what a watermelon looks like. And any moron who thinks this "tape" or "paper" looks like a watermelon is either blind or in on the take. I couldn't believe the photo when I saw it, what an absolute joke. Thank God they caught this shipment because criminals this stupid don't deserve to prosper. Just an absolute joke of an attempt at making things try to look like a watermelon. Morons.