BALTIMORE – One day after discovering hashish concealed inside seashells, Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport discovered more hashish, this time concealed inside a bag of lemongrass in an air cargo shipment from Nigeria.
of lemongrass.
CBP agriculture specialists examined the shipment, manifested as clothes and crayfish on September 30. Instead, CBP agriculture specialists discovered prohibited wood chips, melon seeds, chicken seasoning, and tetrapleura pods, which is a seed that produces a flowering plant in the pea family native to Western Africa. Agriculture specialists also found the bag of lemongrass.
Within the lemongrass, CBP agriculture specialists found a similar brown substance to that discovered in the seashells. CBP officers field-tested the substance, which proved positive for the properties of hashish. The hashish weighed about 35 grams.
The parcel was destined to an address in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Authorities have made no arrests. An investigation continues.
One day earlier, CBP agriculture specialists discovered a little more than 38 grams of heroin from Nigeria concealed inside seashells taped closed.
“Customs and Border Protection is up to the task of intercepting dangerous drugs in even the most unusual of concealment methods to help keep our communities safe,” said Casey Durst, Director of Field Operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “Narcotics interdiction remains a top enforcement priority for CBP and one that we take very serious.”
CBP seized an average of 3,707 pounds of dangerous drugs every day across the United States last year. Learn more about what CBP accomplished during “A Typical Day” in 2019.
CBP's border security mission is led at ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations. CBP officers screen international travelers and cargo and search for illicit narcotics, unreported currency, weapons, counterfeit consumer goods, prohibited agriculture, and other illicit products that could potentially harm the American public, U.S. businesses, and our nation’s safety and economic vitality.
Please visit CBP Ports of Entry to learn more about how CBP’s Office of Field Operations secures our nation’s borders.