U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspect black, vacuum-sealed bags containing marijuana hashish last month after two U.S. travelers were detained and their baggage searched at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Photo by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Aug. 4 (UPI) — Two U.S. travelers were detained for drug smuggling last month after they were caught carrying 72 pounds of marijuana hashish in their luggage on a flight between Los Angeles and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday.
The couple, who were catching a connecting flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, were selected for outbound Passenger Enforcement Rover Team exams when CBP found heavy objects wrapped in white t-shirts inside their baggage.
Officers took the couple’s passports and receipts for checked baggage to conduct a more thorough search. They found vacuum-sealed bags containing 37 pounds of marijuana hashish in one suitcase and 35 pounds in another.
CBP officers also found bags of cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy.
“These individuals believed they were going to easily slip by CBP’s watchful eye — they were wrong,” said LaFonda Sutton-Burke, Director of Field Operations at Chicago Field Office. “Unfortunately, this is a method of smuggling we continue to encounter with narcotic traffickers and there are consequences for their actions.”
Last month, CBP officers seized 60,470 pounds of drugs at ports of entry into and out of the United States by air, sea and land.