Federal customs officials in Philadelphia seized an estimated $22 million worth of cocaine hidden in the walls of bedroom furniture and kitchen cabinets, Customs and Border Protection said.
While examining shipping containers at a seaport in Pennsauken, New Jersey, on November 2, CBP officers noticed something odd with one of the containers and had them transported to CBP’s Centralized Examination Station in Philadelphia.
‘Officers emptied the contents of the container, and after thorough inspection, discovered false walls in numerous pieces of furniture,’ CBP said in a press release.
‘The false compartments concealed 256 bricks of a white powdery substance that field tested positive for cocaine.’
Federal officials in Philadelphia recently seized more than 700 pounds of cocaine hidden in the walls of bedroom furniture and kitchen cabinets
Officials said the pieces of furniture 256 bricks of a white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine
CBP said the containers contained more than 700 pounds of cocaine and had been shipped from Puerto Rico.
Weeks later, on November 28, CBP officers made another bust at the same seaport seizing nearly 30 pounds of cocaine hidden inside a wooden chest.
The drugs from that bust had a street value estimated at $900,000. Combined with the first bust officials said the cocaine was valued at $22 million.
According to officials, the containers were being shipped to an address in Cinnaminson, NJ.
This is CBP’s sixth largest cocaine bust in its history and the 10th largest bust of any illicit drug in the Port of Philadelphia, officials said.
The drugs have a street value estimated at $22 million
It was the sixth largest cocaine bust in CBP history and the 10th largest bust of any illicit drug in the Port of Philadelphia
‘Customs and Border Protection knows that transnational drug trafficking organizations will take advantage of natural disasters, and in this case an island struggling to recover from a crippling hurricane, to smuggle dangerous drugs to our nation’s mainland,’ Joseph Martella of CBP said in a statement. ‘CBP officers remain ever vigilant to interdict narcotics loads, and we are pleased to have stopped this deadly poison shipment before it could hurt our communities.’
Federal officials said they have opened an investigation.
The furniture was searched after officers detected something unusual about one of the shipping containers.
An investigation is ongoing.