Busted! Drug traffickers continue to come up with weird and unusual ways to smuggle their cargo across borders in an attempt to thwart customs and outwit security. And these are just a few of the hair-brained schemes we’ve come across;
Nuns with dodgy habits
Just this week three women dressed as nuns were busted in Colombia, trying to smuggle cocaine that had been hidden underneath their habits. Officials became suspicious about their outfits and the fact they looked nervous. Rightly so, as these fake nuns each had 2 kilos (4.4 lbs) of cocaine taped onto their legs!
Innovative catapult
Security chiefs discovered what was dubbed a ‘weed catapult’ which was designed to literally catapult packages of marijuana over the Mexican border. Packed into 4 pound parcels, three men operated the catapult but were rumbled when border agents found a total of 45 pounds worth of marijuana in Arizona.
Swallow it
Probably one of the oldest tricks for drug smuggling is the swallowing method. Well last year this was taken to new heights when a woman was caught having downed 51 condoms filled with heroin! Canadian customs officials caught the woman who had ingested the narcotics pellets and without medical intervention would have actually died!
Go underground
Drug smugglers have come up with a novel way of getting their product over the Mexican border – digging an elaborate series of tunnels into southwest America. In fact since the 1990s over 100 tunnels have been discovered from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego in California. These tunnels are pretty high-tech with their own lighting and climate controlled systems.
Ship it
Drug traffickers have really gone back to basics with this one – literally choosing a courier company to speed (no pun intended) their drug of choice to their destination. Pretty simple really, until the day comes when you’re out and the delivery man leaves your parcel in the bin for safe keeping, but its bin collection day! Expensive mistake.
Fishy haul
Drugs have long been disguised in various foodstuffs such as melons and cake, but what about clams? Yes a man from El Salvador was caught at Washington Dulles Airport with over 150 sea clams stuffed full of cocaine. Customs smelt something fishy and discovered the sea molluscs had all been glued shut. Seems a strange way to smuggle drugs – surely clams would have been more commonplace on a fishing boat?
Cannons
As well as using catapults, smugglers also use cannons to fire packages over the border. They load everyday soup cans with their product and scoot them over the border using a cannon. Up to 2 pounds can be packed into a can and the collector the other side just needs to be in the right place at the right time – no border crossing required!
