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Food

Customs Uncovers Coke-Laced Tea Bags, Cash-Lined Luggage

By

Garth Johnston

Published May 12, 2011

Modified May 12, 2011

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Some of the coke-laced product that Customs found.

 

By

Garth Johnston

Published May 12, 2011

Modified May 12, 2011

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The TSA may be an increasingly unfunny joke, but it is nice to hear that Customs officers at least still know how to do their job. Agents at JFK Airport in the past month have not only seized nearly $800,000 bucks in counterfeit cash but they also discovered and destoryed a shipment of cocaine-laced teabags from Peru.

The most recent funny money was found in the form of hundreds of fake hundreds lining the luggage of a man named Jonathan Reyes, who was promptly arrested. Even better, he was caught less than a month after officials busted another alleged counterfeiter, a man named Marco Chavez, who was found carrying roughly $600,000 in phony dough loose in his luggage.

Meanwhile, the coke-laced teabags were discovered during a routine check of "Green Tea Samples" being shipped to the country from Peru. Apparently the tea was more white than green. Looking closer officers found about two pounds of coca leaf products in the form of tea bags and energy bars inside the shipment, according to authorities. The findings were confirmed by lab tests and the shipment was, according to Homeland Security, destroyed.

Nice to know that somebody at the airports is doing their job! But with drug smugglers constantly upping their game (hiding drugs in children's coloring books, anyone?) we suspect that Custom's recent haul is but a tiny fraction of what passes through JFK on a regular basis.

Tagged

cocaine

counterfeit money

customs

drug smuggling

JFK

Garth Johnston

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