The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency says officers at an express consignment hub in Memphis, Tennessee have seized a cookbook with cocaine stashed inside on a shipment from Trinidad and Tobago.
However, CBP said officers found many of the 500 recipes and 32 colored photographs missing, cut out to make room for a rectangular packet of cocaine, weighing 147.6 grams.
The shipment was sent from Trinidad and Tobago to an address in the “Little Caribbean neighborhood” of New York City.
Located seven miles north of Venezuela, which has an ultra-porous 1,378-mile border with the cocaine capital of the world, Colombia, drugs continue to enter Trinidad by speedboat and leave on container ships, planes, and private yachts, as well as through unique methods as the one in this report.
US importers provide advance information about container cargo, express consignment shipments, and some international mail parcels bound for the United States, the CBP said.
It said it uses this data to target and intercept high-risk shipments.
“CBP personnel are trained to identify patterns and red flags that enable them to intercept shipments that may contain illicit and potentially dangerous goods,” the statement said.
“How was the recipient intending to cook his traditional callaloo, with all the pages cut up and replaced with cocaine?” asked Area Port Director Michael Neipert in jest.
“Smugglers continue to conceal narcotics and other contraband in myriad ways, which my officers seize over and over every shift,” he added.
Neipert said this seizure took place within the Area Port of Memphis, which covers ports of entry throughout the state of Tennessee and falls under CBP’s New Orleans Field Office.
He said this Field Office includes all ports in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
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